B2 Chapter 41
"Brother Han."
Cao Renshu. The man who had taken the name Daoist Guarding Thunder. Two oaths, his brothers had sworn that fateful day beneath a bloodstained sun. Han Jian had already taken his own, years before. The war that had defined his brothers had been little more than another unwelcome tragic interlude to him. He'd seen too much loss already; become too hardened for the madness to scar him as it had the men who that day became his brothers.
Daoist Scouring Medicine had turned back from his path that day. Cast aside poison and incendiaries, forsworn the techniques that had made him untouchable on the battlefield, for fear they would yet make a demon of him. And Daoist Guarding Thunder had sworn that never again would a member of the Azure Mountain be forced to go to such lengths. That he would ever again take to the battlefield so that men like Li Xun and Xiang Ru might not. To protect the sect from all enemies, internal and external alike.
That day, their resolve had shamed him. His oath to bring Bai Xiaotong to justice had seemed so petty in comparison. A personal grudge clothed in the trappings of honor.
Yet in the end, he had kept his promise. He was not certain he could say the same of his brothers.
"You will go no further." Cao Renshu said softly. "We will wait, together, for my master to retrieve our wayward brother."
Daoist Enduring Oath had to crane his neck to meet his brother's eyes. He stood upon a flying sword, floating effortlessly in the air. Flight, true flight, was not typically the domain of Foundation Establishment cultivators. Skilled sword cultivators usually achieved it near the peak of the realm. Some who cultivated the arts of fan and gale managed it even sooner, even as early as Qi Condensation. But for most cultivators, flight came with the formation of their core. The expenditure of qi required for most flying techniques was simply too great.
Despite the blade he stood upon, Cao Renshu was not that skilled a sword cultivator. A gift then, from Elder Lu. But borrowed power or not, it was a problem. For Daoist Enduring Oath could not fly. He was not certain that would ever change, even if by some miracle he formed a Nascent Soul.
"Elder Lu will not be gentle with him, but he will live." Cao Renshu continued, seeing him hesitate. "He swore it. And whatever else you might believe of him, he is a man who treats his oaths as seriously as you do."
Han Jian breathed in. He exhaled. And he took a step forward, following in the direction Li Xun had run. Cao Renshu would strike first. It was not that he refused to. It simply made more tactical sense letting his brother start the fight. He would only get one chance to pull his brother off his high perch, to drag him down to his level.
"Do not." Daoist Guarding Thunder warned. He extended a hand, sparks crackling around his fingers.
"Why?" Daoist Enduring Oath asked simply.
Why were his sworn brothers such idiots? It was supposed to be the three of them against the world. Why couldn't Li Xun bend his neck and submit to the strictures he'd accepted when he joined the sect? Why couldn't Daoist Guarding Thunder remember that he had made as many oaths to the pair of them as he had to the sect?
Even Elder Lu would have no hope of standing against the three of them united.
Neither of those silent questions was the one that Cao Renshu answered.
"Do you honestly think that Li Xun can make it as a wandering cultivator?" Daoist Guarding Thunder said, unable to fully quash the condescension in his voice. "He prides himself on his rationality, but has he ever faced a difficulty, a true tribulation, and done anything other than fight with all the venom he can muster? You must know he will destroy himself. He knows no other way."
The worst part was that Cao Renshu was not even wrong. Han Jian clenched his fists, squeezing the great iron links that ran through his palms. The worst part, that even though he would take up arms for his brother, in his heart of hearts, he did not disagree with Cao Renshu's assessment of the wisdom of his brother's road.
"These gentle days will not last." Cao Renshu continued. "When the wolves gather, and they need his fires and poisons again, anything can be forgiven."
"Li Xun needs no forgiveness."
The words left his lips before his mind even finished the thought. Yet, only in the speaking did he realize just how deeply he believed them. His brother was unwise and self-destructive. Foolishly confident and hopelessly proud. This road he walked was a mistake.
But he needed no forgiveness from Han Jian.
"I walked a foolish road once. I was willing to sever my path to immortality in exchange for strength. He failed, in the end. But Li Xun almost made it possible for me to keep both my oath and my future. All three of us are fools, Brother Cao. But when it was my turn to make a mistake, he supported me with all his might."
"You cannot be—"
Daoist Enduring Oath cut his brother off with a laugh. And then he took a second step forward.
"You and Li Xun were always proud and unyielding. But make no mistake, it is I that have always been the most stubborn of the three of us. I won't kill you, brother. But nothing short of death will stop my stride. So get out of my way, or be crushed underfoot."
Han Jian's limbs were so very heavy. He could feel his heart beating, a tremor pushing a landslide into motion. Even in the best case, this battle would take a year or three off his life.
So be it.
The heavens crackled with lightning, and the earth rose up to meet it.
Daoist Scouring Medicine had once told his disciple that the cultivator who drew his trump cards first often lost. But that was only true if they did not win with that hand.
Li Xun liked to fight slowly. He wasn't the sort of keen martial mind that saw weakness in the way a man walked. He preferred to win his fights off the battlefield, or at worst steadily whittle down his opponents by countering their every offense before committing himself.
For a Foundation Establishment cultivator, his peak offensive ability was relatively weak. But few had his combination of mobility, defense, and endurance. Fliers might outstrip him in speed, but nobody in his realm could outlast him with a full pouch of pills.
Unfortunately, he did not have a full storage treasure worth of pills. And Elder Lu was not a Foundation Establishment cultivator. He would not win this fight fairly.
Elder Lu had struck the moment he'd reached into his bag. An open palm that shined like the sun and rang like a gong when it struck Li Xun's chest.
Li Xun's left hand caught Elder Lu's wrist even as he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
And then it was out. Free to stain the world, the talismans he'd sealed it with withering to ash.
Without mouth or vocal cords, his creation cried out for the first time with the only voice it had.
Both men screamed as Poison Qi flooded the air. Li Xun felt his skin begin to liquefy where it touched the worm. He'd thought he'd been ready. Steely qi dwelled beneath his skin, as twin threads of wood and water surged through his meridians, ready to wash away that which would tarnish his metallic defense. It wasn't enough.
Elder Lu fared little better, even without direct contact with the worm. Black spots immediately began to spread across his face, his liver spots blooming into pools of blighted blood. In the long moment where both of them shivered, stunned by the gu's wordless curse, blood began to drip from his nose and ears.
And then Elder Lu wrenched his arm free, leveraging the impossible strength that dwelled within his thin limbs. His hands crashed together like cymbals, and the roar of a great bell echoed through the vale. A massive concussive force separated the two cultivators, leaving Li Xun alone with his sin.
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"You fool." Lu Xiaosheng coughed out between bloody exhalations. "What have you done?"
Li Xun smiled as his creation ate away at his life. Of course his defenses were insufficient.
His Blight-Crowned Crimson Rotworm was a Core Formation gu after all. It had not provoked a tribulation. But he knew it was true all the same. Its strength left no doubt.
"Shh." Li Xun murmured, extending his qi around the newborn calamity. He wrapped it up in a Phantom Palm, set it hovering at his side, to give his weeping flesh a reprieve.
The grass at his feet began to blacken. He could not control the gu. Not fully. Venom flowed into his qi, the barest touches enough to stain it. But the same power that might soon kill him granted him strength. He felt his qi surge, shifting, as he borrowed the worm's power. The boundless strength of Core Formation.
"I followed my dao where it led." Li Xun answered simply. His spirit breathed deep, and for the first time since the fall of the Withering Lotus Palace, he felt Poison Qi once more flood his meridians.
None of them understood. Not his seniors. Not the demons. Perhaps his disciple would one day, if Li Xun survived this one.
Poison Qi was not qi that was poisonous. It was the very essence of poison. So much more than the cruelest of Poison Masters and the most open-minded of Immortal Doctors could imagine.
For Poison was everything Medicine was not.
Everything.
Not merely a tool for destruction, but one that altered states and transcended limitations. Alcohol was poison. Every stimulant worth the name was poison; too much tobacco could kill even a lowly cultivator. That which killed pain could kill the man who felt it. Even qi, especially qi, was poison. Cultivators beyond counting had died for forgetting that fact. That what raised them up could cast them down, or twist them beyond recognition.
The line between medicine and poison ran through the heart of every subject worth mentioning.
That was the simple truth that Li Xun had learned in the Thousand Poison Vale. The piece of enlightenment that had set him apart from every other cultivator in that charnel pit. Together, Medicine and Poison were a Great Dao. A complete Taiji, a duality that could encompass the universe.
Was it any wonder he'd failed to advance, after turning away from that truth? He'd spent decades denying half of his nature.
No longer.
Complete, Li Xun tore through the space between them in an instant. Faster even than under the influence of the Quaternary Heart-Fire Pill, his movement was effortless.
A spearhand palm, tipped in venom, lanced out for Elder Lu's throat. Elder Lu parried, but his sleeve melted away from the momentary contact. Such a waste of fine silk.
Li Xun's second blow was clawed, grasping. It caught the fist that sought to meet it, gouging away flesh with rot.
Elder Lu twisted, a slipper rising to kick at Li Xun's chin with the force of a dozen horses. Li Xun let go, stepped back, let the blow pass harmlessly before his throat. And then he reached out with clawed fingers, casting the Immobilizing Spell his disciple so favored.
"Stop." He whispered, as the monkey did.
Elder Lu's golden qi surged, shattering the spell. And then he cried out, as Li Xun's venomous qi followed his power home. Even his qi was toxic now. Even in resistance, he killed.
"I don't want to kill you." Elder Lu said, cycling his qi. "You are making that difficult."
"No, you don't." Li Xun agreed. "You wish to own me. And that is worse."
Elder Lu took Li Xun's kick upon crossed arms. The blow sent him tumbling end over end, his flesh already blackening. Too slow to stand against him. Too weak.
Li Xun was more, as he stood dying. His senses were clearer, his reactions faster. His strength beyond the sensible limits his body usually imposed. Poison. It denied the weakness of mortality.
The Blight-Crowned Crimson Rotworm chirped gently where it floated, a devil in his ear, proud to be of service. He wondered if he would ever set it aside again. Li Hou had a phrase about that, speaking of Yang Wei. Guided by the beauty of his weapons. Li Xun could see the dark glory in the idea. The way a blade quietly demanded use.
"Very well. If it is a demon you would become, it is as a demon I shall treat you."
Li Xun turned to his foe. Elder Lu had risen to his feet. He extended his bloody hands in mocking welcome.
"I have seen how you treat demons. And I am not afraid."
Li Xun felt the storage ring's activation from where he stood. A pulse of golden light that left a dozen flying swords in its wake. Gaudy and powerful things.
They soared into the air, descending like falcons to pierce Li Xun's toxic flesh.
The strength of a Core Formation cultivation base. A body that knew no limits. This was the logical place his techniques had led him. His Five-Element Body, his Quicksilver Vessel Method. They were hollow techniques, meant to hold something.
Li Xun ignored the swords. He kicked off the dead earth the moment they descended like hawks, rushing forward with a speed that left them in the dust. His eyes were sharp enough to count every blade of grass that blackened and died as he touched it.
One punch shattered that gaudy fan Elder Lu so loved. A second tore the flesh from his blocking forearm, leaving bone exposed.
And then the swords were upon him again. He caught the first with a single hand, pouring Poison Qi into it. It was not a living thing. It still died between his fingers.
"No—"
Li Xun reached into his storage bag with his other hand, felt the treasure shudder in revulsion at his touch. He withdrew the heavy iron saber that Daoist Enduring Oath had forged for him. The brutal weapon he usually struggled to artlessly wield.
It at least, did not fear his hand.
He swung the heavy slab of iron like a feather, the air screaming as blade after blade shattered around him. The flying swords were elegant things, steel inlaid with wealth, blessed with will and mystery.
They broke easily when his far heavier blade smashed them into the earth.
"Enough!" Elder Lu roared. He was bleeding from his eyes now. His liver spots were gone. They had simply flaked away, leaving open sores across his body. Poisoned winds tore across the battlefield, cursing the very earth. Li Xun was struggling to restrain his gu. There were mortals not more than ten chi away from them. The damage had extended beyond merely killing the grasses and trees. Now the soil itself was dying, rotting into dust. His every step sank deep into pale and powdery earth.
He could not bear much more of this, nor could the land.
Golden light began to pour from Elder Lu's eyes, seep from every bleeding wound.
Li Xun took a moment to reach into his quivering storage treasure one final time. He did not taste the pills he tossed into his mouth. They were nothing, after all. A sprinkling of water that hardly slowed the conflagration within his dantian. His saber was already beginning to rust beneath his fingers, so he cast it aside.
The ringing of a dozen unseen bells heralded the moment Elder Lu stepped out of his flesh.
No, it was not so clean a thing as that. He stepped forward, but his flesh fell away like a snake's shed skin, bone and muscles having no purchase upon what he'd become. What remained was not a man. All that was mortal and frail was scoured away, leaving only smooth planes of gold. The idealized form of a young man in the prime of his life.
"I see I am not the only one to have made an abomination of myself."
Elder Lu's chuckle out rang like the striking of a gong.
"Impressive." The featureless golden figure had a voice like a false buddha's. Booming. Demanding adulation. The thin line that was the only trace of a mouth it had did not move when it spoke. "A terrible poison you have created, Gu Master. A pity that gold unalloyed does not tarnish."
Li Xun returned the elder's laughter. It was madness, but he felt so good. So alive. His heart pounded like a rabbit's. His muscles writhed beneath his skin, demanding more, more, and ever more.
"That is the thing about poison, Elder Lu. All one needs to be safe from it, is nothing. Don't take the cup. Don't touch the needles. Don't give the order. It kills nobody, when left to its own devices. As you lay dying, remember, you chose this."
"No." Elder Lu said. "If we are to speak from the hearts of our natures, it is you who should remember. This fate is what you deserve."
The two men rushed each other in unison. Elder Lu was faster now, unburdened by his aging body, but Li Xun could still match him. Palm met fist with a thunderous impact. Li Xun kicked out, taking Elder Lu in the side, but his body flexed with the blow like the soft metal it was. It sprang back into shape the next instant, all the strength of metal and flesh, with the weakness of neither.
And true to Elder Lu's promise, no tarnish spread across his golden body.
The statue clapped its hands, and once more golden light blazed forth.
"Your wrongs, punished." He incanted. "Your mistakes, rectified."
The scales of blackened metal he'd brought forth against Elder Xun appeared behind his back, floating opposite the Blight-Crowned Crimson Rotworm. They were still small and transparent, not yet charged.
But with every futile exchange of blows the scales grew larger. Darker. Heavier.
Li Xun's strength wasn't enough. Even with the worm. To push Elder Lu this far was the best he could hope for.
He had already stepped beyond righteousness. If this was what it took to see his disciple unfettered, free to be himself, and not the weapon the sect would make of him, he would step beyond hope.
"I always used to mock sword cultivators." Li Xun said. "For their foolishness."
There was blood on his breath. It was sweet. Rotten. He wondered if his teeth had blackened, like those strange women he'd seen in the Kingdom of Wu.
The heavens darkened as Li Xun stoked his qi to a frenzy. He had no shortage of it, even after all he'd expended. It was not his spirit that was failing, but his flesh.
Elder Lu had eyes no longer. But Li Xun could see the fear in him as he realized what was coming.
"You will die." The statue thundered. It was not a threat. Elder Lu was entirely correct.
Li Xun smiled.
"You will too."
This too, was the nature of Poison.
Elder Lu turned and ran, and Li Xun chased after him. He had chosen this. He would not escape the consequences.
Even if it was Heaven that would deliver them.
Orange-crest ran.
He sped over hills and valleys, past villages he'd hoped to explore at the side of his master.
He pounded across roads and crashed through hedges, unflagging as he ran with a speed most men on horses would struggle to match, despite his lingering injuries. But the same weight that made him unstoppable made him slow. Slower than an arrow. Slower by far than the death that circled around a cultivator's battle.
Lightning flashed in the distance, storms overtaking the clear sky he'd left behind.
His master was resolved. And his master was a headstrong idiot. They didn't need to do this. But Li Xun needed to do this.
He had nothing. No words to pacify, no fates to counterfeit, no strength to intervene. Not even a mountain on the horizon; he was yet too distant to see Mount Yuelu. He had only a heading, and a prayer.
Only one creature could save him now. Would save him now. Man's deities were silent. Orange-crest could only hope that this day, his own was listening.