B2 Chapter 36
Xiao Yongzheng's words hung heavy in the air, an ancestral death sentence delivered a world and age apart.
And then blood stained the calm.
It was formless-gleam that struck first. The figment of the fox that had spoken licked delicately at a paw as the Seventh Prince cried out in pain, blood spraying from his calf. Claw or fang, the others could not tell. The fox's mastery of illusions was far beyond them, even in the moment of striking there was no indication of her form. Any bloody pawprints she might have left were consumed by her overwhelming art. Even the sounds of her skittering claws were dispersed, fragmented, as if there were foxes running around in every direction.
She was gone the moment the Seventh Prince's flying sword sought to give answer. It tried all the same, sweeping about him wildly, cutting nothing save the air. His bound spirits shifted, their weapons tracking phantoms in the gathering mist. They showed no fear on their faces. But that placid determination was undermined by the way their spears and swords shifted uneasily, unable to find anything to cut.
"Peace among men." The visible fox spat. "What a pathetic joke. There will be peace among men when only one human remains among the living, no sooner."
Orange-crest stepped out of himself, fading into an illusion. He had no illusions that the technique would hold against formless-gleam, but he trusted he could at least deceive the prince. He'd failed. Perhaps his hope had been doomed from the start. He'd not known the depths of this grudge, this ancient history between mankind and Daji.
Blood stained the smooth stone floor again. The opposite thigh this time. A ring of steel, ghostly and magical alike, sought the fox. It was a futile effort. Flesh and blood she might have been, but the fox was more of an apparition than the spirits that sought her.
Whiny yips echoed from the emptiness, growing higher in pitch with each bark. Human laughter joined them, the noises clashing to form a dissonant cacophony.
Xiao Yongzheng's face turned white. His teeth ground against each other from the pain as he reached into his storage ring.
Formless-gleam struck a third time as his hand rose toward his mouth.
Orange-crest almost missed what passed between them, as yellow-white light seared his eyes. It blazed forth the moment the fox struck, shattering her illusion. The prince held aloft a mirror of polished bronze. He'd concealed it behind a sleeve, feigning it was a pill. Sparks leapt forth from it, coiling around the prince like maddened birds, or scarring desks and rugs with veins of black ash.
The mocking laughter cut off as the mist at the edge of the room recoiled in time with the now visible fox.
Formless-gleam landed gently on her paws, singed, but uninjured. She began to fade away in that same instant, but Xiao Yongzheng did not give her a moment to weave her art. He led with a descending palm, wreathed in lightning, that rang like a thunderbolt as it struck home. Formless-gleam caught the blow upon her crossed tails. Fur blackened, but the seemingly insubstantial limbs did not bend in the least under the weight of the larger man. The spirits followed in Xiao Yongzheng's wake, but formless-gleam leapt into the air, spinning. Her tails buffeted the hollow things, sending them flying like leaves before a gale.
The prince's sword descended, meeting his rising hand. Lightning danced along the edge of the blade. Snarling fangs met the falling sword.
Orange-crest considered himself tough. A most durable creature. But even he would be hard-pressed to take a blow like that upon his teeth. Yet formless-gleam seemed to get the better end of that exchange. Her teeth locked around the blade, muscles spasming beneath the fur of her neck as the lightning raged through her. She kicked off empty air like a ghost, driving the prince onto the balls of his feet, pushing his own sword toward his throat.
Orange-crest was half in motion, ready to intervene, when the prince smashed the bronze mirror into the fox's face. Lightning flashed, but not very brightly. However the mirror functioned, it wasn't actually a good melee weapon. But the sole moment of disorientation it brought was all the prince needed. His men struck as one, driving half-substantial spears into the fox's flank, staining her fur with fully-substantial blood. Formless-gleam yelped, her baleful qi raging forth like a storm.
The sheer force of it was more than the prince's men could stand. The ghosts were dispersed instantly, scattered to the corners of the room, but the prince refused to fall back. He staggered through the raging qi, sword extended before him. The blade was as much dragging him as he was pushing it. It was still pointless. The sheer disparity in cultivation was too much to overcome. The fox vanished, cloaked once more in illusion. The prince consumed a pill. The game of tiger and monkey resumed, as they traded tentative blows, flashes of claws and lightning, each waiting for the other to reveal another technique.
Orange-crest grit his teeth at the sight. He'd bent until he felt like his heart would break. Denied his desire for that seal, and his affection for the fox. And it had not been enough to save her life, should Xiao Yongzheng triumph.
He'd considered letting formless-gleam kill the prince. His master would have scolded him for the mere thought. But he was not his master. Yet, he still made the same choice his master would in the end. Killing him was too far. And it would be to the death. Formless-gleam would not be satisfied with anything less, he could smell the bloodlust in her. Neither fox nor monkey would survive what followed. He'd seen the heights and depths of mankind's cultivation. The Monkey King might shelter his wayward master from one sect. Xiao Yongzheng's father and many uncles would be another matter entirely.
No. He'd bent enough. He would bend no more. If humility and affection were not enough, strength and guile would have to be. He needed Grand Elder Tian's seal. Everything would turn upon it. Controlling meant controlling the fight. If he held it, and sought to flee, both would chase him. If one of them held it, they would fight each other.
He'd beat them both until they could fight no longer, part them by force, and hope with the seal beyond their reach they'd have the good sense to flee and lick their wounds. If Heaven ordained one of them fall here, Heaven could go stick its face in a beehive.
Daoist Scouring Medicine had once told Li Hou that many daoists believed that in a fight between equally matched cultivators, the one who reached for their trump cards first would almost always lose. A little in his cups at that point, he had then confided to the monkey that this belief was bullshit. It was often true for two orthodox cultivators. Using sword intent when your opponent still had strength to dodge it, or using your greatest attack before exhausting their life-saving treasures with lesser ones, was often a mistake. But only single-minded and unimaginative fools limited themselves to arts that were just more effective ways to hit someone.
Still hidden, orange-crest grabbed his gourd. It was more than half full. Salt and bitterness filled his mouth as he drank deep. One swallow. Two. Three. Four. When he was finished, there was only a single mouthful left. His chest began to warm. He threw back the Jade Bone Elixir as well. He'd need every scrap of strength he could muster. He was going to have a terrible hangover tomorrow. But today, he was going to save them both.
"There is only one way this can end." Xiao Yongzheng proclaimed, brandishing his sword. "Cease dawdling, and come meet your fate."
"On that alone, we agree." Formless-gleam hissed. "Your kind has ensured there can be no other. We are born hunted, it is only righteous that we should become hunters in turn."
"Righteous." The prince echoed. "What would you know of the word?"
The air of the chamber blurred. Half a dozen foxes stepped forth from the hazy air, encircling the prince. Orange-crest poured qi into his eyes. None of them would be real, but there had to be a sign.
"Nothing." The illusory foxes chorused in unison. "I know nothing of righteousness, save what I have learned from watching your kind."
Orbs of fox-fire coalesced at the edge of the office, casting wild shadows through the encroaching mist. No longer a sickly green, the flames were tinged an eerie blue. They gathered like scavengers around a dying animal, growing in number until the entire room was bathed in coldly flickering light.
"And I want no part of it. Burn."
In unison, the orbs of flame drifted hungrily toward the prince and his guardians. Frost bloomed whenever they passed too close to a surface. Xiao Yongzheng held his mirror aloft, sending lightning streaming forth. Orbs detonated prematurely where the sparking power passed, and he charged through the opening.
The rest of the fox-fire drifted ever closer, chasing after the prince. The mirror fell quiet. His dodges became more desperate. It wouldn't be enough.
Orange-crest shut his eyes, wracked his brain. Should he have moved earlier? A wasted thought. He needed to distract the fox now. He did not like that he didn't know the contents of the prince's ring. He would have at least one more serious treasure. Something big. But even with that, it was clear he was far weaker than formless-gleam. The fox was the strongest of them, standing at least at the peak of Qi Condensation to the prince's mere fourth stage. But she didn't have a ring, or pills. He needed to wear her down. For all the prince's tricks and toys, he was weak in body and spirit. Orange-crest could overwhelm him physically later. But he couldn't let him fall this soon.
The monkey poured out qi, forming half a dozen more illusory clones. They charged into the hall, whooping and dancing, just behind the foxfire. His illusions broke on contact. It might work.
Xiao Yongzheng spared them hardly a glance, desperately dodging. His lightning was not dispersing the foxfire quickly enough. His sword struck several, lancing the orbs like a needle pushing through ripe fruit. Frost built on its edges. Its flight slowed, then began jerking unsteadily. It couldn't take many more impacts.
Orange-crest cast his eyes and ears about for any trace of the real fox. Formless-gleam hadn't reacted at all to his illusions. Her qi saturated the room, so abundant he couldn't track her down. The room was large. But he knew the fox. Formless-gleam wouldn't be at the edge of the hall. She'd be close, ready to strike, to finish the kill. Just at the edge of the narrowing ring of foxfire.
One of the prince's spirits charged forward, vanishing in a blaze of foxfire, leaving not even ash behind. The prince slipped through the gap in the encirclement, his mirror belching lightning once more, but yet more orbs of fire were forming in the distance.
One of orange-crest's clones contacted something invisible and vanished. The real monkey crept in that direction.
The prince sacrificed a second spirit, then a third. His mirror fell silent again, and a fourth spirit stepped forward to die. The pattern was clear. The bronze mirror needed a few seconds to recover after discharging lightning.
"Stop." Orange-crest whispered, extending a hand.
He didn't have a real target. Just a general area, where his illusion had vanished. He had no chance of immobilizing the fox. But he felt where his outstretched qi rebounded and shattered.
There!
Qi surged through the monkey's body, gathering in his foot. He stepped forward, pivoted, and kicked.
The true fox and monkey flashed into sight. Orange-crest's foot stopped for a moment, but in the middle of a technique, even the fox's overwhelming cultivation wasn't enough to turn his blow.
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Formless-gleam went flying like the prince's spirits had before, bouncing across the hall. A dozen orbs of foxfire exploded instantly, as the fox's control over the technique wavered.
"Why!" She hissed. "I had him!"
"I can't let you kill him."
"I see." The fox spat. "You've chosen his side."
Orange-crest wanted to correct her. But if he did, the prince would be forewarned. So he said nothing, and felt his heart shudder at the betrayal and disgust on his friend's face.
"I should have known better than to trust you."
There were fouler and crueler things the fox could have said. She knew many of his secrets. But orange-crest did not think they would have cut like that did.
With sword and lightning, the Seventh Prince cut his way free from the cage of chilling flames.
"You made the correct choice, Li Hou."
"Nobody asked you." Orange-crest snarled. At least this time he did not promise to remember what the monkey had done for him.
"I am sorry." The prince repeated, the words all the more hateful for their seeming honesty. "The righteous path is not an easy one."
"Would it have killed you, to bend?" Orange-crest asked through gritted teeth. The human and the fox were cycling their qi, breathing heavily. He could push the fight, force them to resume. But he didn't want to expend his own strength. The fresher he was, the easier it would be to tip the scales to keep them evenly matched. And he was still growing stronger, as the pill and wine took effect.
The prince stepped forward, dropping his frost-riddled sword. It fell into place at his side, hovering like a hunting dog. With a surge of qi, his ring activated, and he drew forth a banner from his storage ring. A simple triangular flag atop a wooden pole. A flat yellow field, with the character for 'Xiao' emblazoned upon it. A fringe of red waves surrounded the character, rippling like water, or fire. Xiao Yongzheng slammed the base of the pole against the stone floor, and his qi changed. It surged and redoubled, pushing back the mist that formless-gleam's influence had filled the hall with.
"Do you think it is an accident, that even mindless shades flock to my banner?" Xiao Yongzheng cried. Lightning crackled around him, settling upon his shoulders like a cloak of gold. "The path of an emperor is a narrow one. I cannot lie. I will not compromise. I eliminate demons, and protect the Way. We all desire life. An emperor must desire righteousness. I cannot have both, I will choose righteousness."
Orange-crest felt the prince's qi press down upon him, demanding that he kneel. His remaining illusions vanished, unable to sustain themselves before that influence. It was not hostile, not to him at least. But it was a human power. And he was not human.
Formless-gleam was not spared as the monkey was. The panting fox's muzzle was driven to the floor, her externally manifested qi steadily torn apart.
"And you think this is righteousness?" The monkey shouted. "You are blind! She would have offered you mercy, if you had not condemned her for her nature!"
"I do not believe you. But even if I did, do you think Daji first came in blood and screams? Righteousness does not bend before circumstance. That is the difference between us, and them. The only truth that matters. The only line that divides the righteous from the demonic is whether a cultivator will keep to their principles, even if they should cost them immortality. Any man or beast who would do otherwise is doomed to become a demon. Because one day, their talent will reach its limit. Their good fortune expire. And they will be faced with a simple choice. Betray their convictions, or see their lifespan exhausted. If that day comes in my seventeenth year, I will meet it with a neck unbowed, and a heart unclouded."
With every word, his qi grew stronger, rushing forth in time with his voice. It washed away everything that it pressed against, a lake raging at its banks. It was not greater than it was before. The pressure of the Seventh Prince's qi did not show the slower, heavier fluctuations of Foundation Establishment. It was heavy in a different way. That curiously weighty sensation that orange-crest had come to associate with Nascent Soul cultivators.
No. That was impossible. Nobody could wield a power three realms above them. Two was pushing it. His master had assured him there were limits to how much power could be borrowed.
"That. Is. Stupid!" Orange-crest cried, forcing the words out through leaden lips. It was like the world itself insisted he not contradict the prince's speech. "You. Know. Nothing!"
The pressure eased for a moment, and the monkey pressed the attack.
"Seventeen! That is nothing! A baby!" Orange-crest shouted, ignoring the hypocrisy of his mere seven winters. "You don't know the fox! You don't know what is righteous! Everyone has principles! Dying to keep them doesn't make them righteous any more than killing to uphold them!"
"Silence." The prince commanded. Orange-crest's traitorous lips obeyed, sealing themselves shut. "Uncertainty is no excuse for cowardice. How do I know that loving life is not a delusion? How do I know that in hating death I am not like a man who left home in his youth and forgot the way back?"
The words had the hollow air of a quotation.
Xiao Yongzheng turned to formless-gleam, still pressed into the ground by the power of the banner.
"Enough. It is time that you meet the fate of all demons."
He frowned, then extended a hand. His fingers formed into a fist, and yet another illusion shattered. The true formless-gleam was revealed, on her feet, but unsteady. Her qi, so overwhelming moments ago, was wavering now.
Orange-crest's eyes widened. It wasn't weight. It was Authority. Dominion. The prince was borrowing the power of his blood somehow. Did it only work on creatures that were not human? No, it couldn't be that simple. Enemies of his empire? It had to cost something to use, or he would have brought it out at the start. But from the way the monkey's lips were glued together, it was clear he could use it to suppress orange-crest the moment he struck against him.
"Slay her." He commanded.
His three remaining soldiers advanced. They'd grown steadier in the presence of the banner. Translucent still, but no longer half-aware. They moved like veterans, two spears and a sword, stalking the unsteady fox.
Formless-gleam struck at them, but they dipped back smoothly before her claws and tails, their companions moving in to punish every small gap in the fox's defense. Formless-gleam snarled, and foxfire bloomed around her, shrouding her tails.
The prince waved his hand and the mirror floating by his shoulder flashed. Lightning struck the fox, dispelling the gathering flames. Without qi, suppressed by the banner, the three soldiers steadily picked her apart. With every moment more and more blood began to stain the pure white of her coat.
Orange-crest could wait no longer. He took a heavy step forward. The Seventh Prince's head turned. He frowned. The monkey took a second step. He felt like he was wading through water, every footfall agonizingly slow.
The prince extended two fingers toward him, then turned his wrist, pointing downward to the ground. A tremendous pressure settled fully upon the monkey, threatening to drive him to his knees.
It was all he could do to remain standing. Shaking his head in disappointment, Xiao Yongzheng returned his attention to formless-gleam. The sword at his side rose, and floated before the mirror. As it passed, a second flying sword emerged from the mirror's surface.
Orange-crest marshalled his qi. He could not express it outside of his body, but he still had his internal techniques. He directed the power to his lungs, to his limbs. He poured out his dantian to feed his body. He felt his fur begin to harden. His head swam, the centipede wine was hitting him in earnest now.
This was the moment.
The monkey forced his hand to his mouth. Wormed a finger between his sealed lips. He inhaled, activating the Drunken Phoenix's Breath. He felt the Seventh Prince's silencing spell slip through his lips to lodge in his chest. It kept his breaths shallow, but he could bear it.
"You are not my emperor." The monkey spat.
He felt the pressure binding him weaken just a hair.
The drunken monkey's mind swam. Authority. What the prince borrowed. What Grand Elder Tian forged. Why Heaven held itself apart from the world. Why transcending a tribulation was to acknowledge its right to test you. Why Shan sought to limit what orange-crest could become. Authority could only exist without a true challenge. And that challenge wasn't power. Wasn't only power? That was why Nascent Soul cultivators were untouchable by those beneath their realm. They bore something lesser cultivators didn't. Something deeper than power.
No. That wasn't quite right. But it was close enough to work with.
"You are no emperor at all!" Orange-crest continued. "Just a prince!"
Another hair less pressure. A little less weight in his throat. A third step forward, then a fourth.
The Seventh Prince was shadowed by four swords now, wreathed in lightning. They arranged themselves in a formation, one facing each cardinal direction. He turned to regard orange-crest for a moment.
"No man is born an emperor. The Kaiyuan claimed his throne with strength. The Jianheng with wisdom. The Qianlong with talent. One day, I shall follow in their footsteps."
The pressure upon the monkey redoubled.
The prince returned his eyes to formless-gleam. The fox had not been given a moment to recover and weave a spell. One of the spirits had fallen to her, but the other two harried her from opposite directions.
"Four Directions Bound the Nation"
The swords rose up into the air. Lightning crackled between them. The aura that emanated from the sword formation was as baleful as anything formless-gleam had released.
"Four Swords Bar the Gates."
The swords flew forth, surrounding formless-gleam from above, their points tracking the fox's heart as she danced with ghosts.
Orange-crest could not allow that technique to complete. It would kill her if it connected. His mouth opened. One chance. What did he say? Denying the prince's authority over him weakened it. If he said the prince would never be emperor, was it true? Could he make it so? Who decided that? Him? Xiao Yongzheng? Other people? Heaven? Fate?
No.
He needed something that fate could not decide.
Orange-crest felt his head swimming. The centipede wine was really hitting. The words on his tongue tasted like a certain sort of bad decision. The kind that you got scolded harshly for, but years on, did not regret. Something in him told him that he had no idea what he was doing. That centipede wine and desperation were leading him somewhere he would not have wandered on his own. That he was making a choice he could not take back.
Well, he wasn't the one doing that. And at least his choice wasn't related to ending the life of another for stupid reasons.
"I kneel before no emperor. Not on earth. And not in Heaven."
Orange-crest said the words, and meant them. They were a little more flowery than what he'd wanted to say, but they felt right. He felt them settle into him, burrowing into a part of him even deeper than his bones. His blood sang in remembrance of something he had never known.
It would be years before anyone explained the concept of a Dao Oath to the monkey. But it was only a moment before he slipped free of the Xiao Banner's suppression, charging toward the distracted prince. The monkey's qi surged, seeping into his skin. His fur hardened, and his flesh followed.
But his footfalls only accelerated as the noise they made shifted from the gentle thuds of flesh upon stone to the sharp cracks of rocks slamming together.
It was so easy. Why had he struggled with it before?
"Four-"
Orange-crest's stony fist took Xiao Yongzheng in the face before he could finish that sentence. The bronze mirror blasted the Stone Monkey with lightning, triggered by the mere act of someone striking its master. Orange-crest grinned, feeling a flake of stone shift on his cheek. It itched a little, moving as stone. Itched about as much as lightning did, as it ran through his body.
Orange-crest felt strong enough to lift a mountain. Putting a prince to bed was nothing in comparison.
"Treacherous animal!" The Seventh Prince was halfway to his feet.
"Never was on your side."
Orange-crest punched him again. It didn't even feel like he'd struck that hard, but the prince's head snapped back brutally. He caught the man's collar as he collapsed to his knees, and reached into his robe.
Orange-crest grabbed Grand Elder Tian's seal.
Then the monkey staggered as something cut into his back.
He reached over his shoulder, and squeezed. One of the four flying swords wriggled in his grip like a fish out of water. He grabbed the handle of the blade and folded it in half like a sheet of paper.
The sword shattered into nothingness. One of the reflections, then.
Oh but orange-crest could get used to this. He looked up at the other three swords, dangling awkwardly in the air, their formation disrupted, all but daring them to strike him.
He was a Stone Monkey in truth now. What did he have to fear from blades and lightning?
The prince was already swallowing a pill, so orange-crest backhanded him as he turned away for good measure. Two pills. He'd have plenty, but as orange-crest was now, it hardly mattered how many pills he had, the monkey could handle him. No amount of healing would surmount the gulf between them. He'd just have to keep him on the back foot enough to stop him from activating any more powerful techniques.
That just left formless-gleam. Orange-crest turned toward the fox. If he could convince her to-
A torrent of foxfire blazed where she'd stood, reaching up to the ceiling. Hoarfrost spread from the edges of the blaze, feathering the stone. There was no sign at all of the remaining two spirits.
He could feel formless-gleam's raging qi clearly, even with Grand Elder Tian's seal in his hand and the Xiao Banner's suppression still filling the hall.
He'd been right. Formless-gleam had been in Foundation Establishment this entire time. There was no mistaking the feel of it.
Damn it all. That did not look like a fox who was about to back down. Why couldn't he be the only one with unfair trump cards?
Orange-crest was torn. Did he interrupt whatever she was doing, examine the seal, or knock out the prince? Or, at least steal his ring?
He didn't get the chance to do any of those things. He barely had time to stuff a pill in his mouth to top off his qi before the pillar of raging foxfire suddenly vanished, absorbed back into formless-gleam.
Where the fox had been now stood a human woman.
And orange-crest somehow doubted she was an illusion. Her hair and robes were white as snow, her eyes and nails as red as blood. Her teeth were sharp, canines protruding over her lip when she smiled.
And smile she did, her face so full of gleeful cruelty that orange-crest found his tongue as still as any mundane stone in the face of her.
"Allow me to introduce myself properly. When I was born, my mother gave me two names. You already know one of them, Li Hou. But my other name is Su Lingjie. So many of us bear that surname, the eternal shame of the line of Daji. Yet by the laws of men, I am owed one other."
She turned to Xiao Yongzheng, who was staggering to his feet for a third time.
"For the sake of peace among men, suffer no fox to live." She repeated, smiling all the while. "A harsh stance. Yet, it is a pity that not all of your family embraces it. You might be in a better place if they did. In truth, it is not Grand Elder Tian's inheritance that I truly came here to claim, though I now plan to leave with it as well."
The fox-turned-human smiled wider, and orange-crest shivered at the sight. How familiar it was, and how terrible, her playful teasing replaced by naked sadism.
"No. It is you that I came here for, cousin."