Corrupted Crimson

by Patrick Laplante

  “Sold!” the auctioneer yelled after three breaths passed. The crystal ball floated to Feng Ming’s seat. It was quickly followed by a collared servant that walked out with a tray. He placed his bid of twenty-five thousand high-grade spirit stones onto the tray and stowed the crystal ball into his bag of holding.

  “The next item is one that my master personally refined with the anguish of ten thousand souls,” the auctioneer said.

  A black flag oozing a malevolent aura appeared on stage. Feng Ming was utterly repulsed by the item. He knew, however, that this was just the beginning. He clenched his teeth as he watched the auction unfold and waited for Cha Ming’s signal.

  “Finally, one who actually kept his invitation somewhere I could find it,” Cha Ming said. He wasn’t upset at having to kill and loot fifteen not-so-innocent people to secure it, but time was of the essence. He rapidly imitated the man’s appearance and shifted his clothes to match the black garb everyone wore. Then he entered the bar and descended the spiraling staircase.

  Right before reaching the bottom, he spotted a shadow just outside a torch’s illumination.

  It’s your turn, Huxian, he sent mentally. Fortunately, their bond could not be disrupted by a petty dampening formation. He wreathed himself in shadows and followed Huxian into the thin world that ran along the hallway.

  We need to be quick, Huxian said. This is very draining. I can give you can hour at most.

  An hour’s all I need, Cha Ming said. He jumped between the sparse islands of shadow separated by a sea of bright light and found what he was looking for: thirty-six obscured locations in the outer ring where the guards and servants walked. He rapidly threw down pairs of formations—the first was a least-grade obscuring formation, which was there for the sole purpose of hiding the second ice-based formation. Then he hopped over to the other thirty-five spots and placed down similar formations.

  How long do we have left? Cha Ming said after placing the last flag.

  A half hour, Huxian replied.

  Cha Ming quickened his pace. He traveled through the shadows to the inner hall, where the auction was proceeding. In the shadow world, he could only make out partial conversations at best. He carefully avoided the senses of the many cultivators and laid down another thirty-six formation eyes. Many of them had even been erected right beside a foundation-establishment cultivator’s foot!

  Get out quick! Huxian yelled.

  Cha Ming immediately hopped out of the shadows where he’d entered at the foot of the stairwell as Huxian ran out of energy. Then he activated a formation he’d carefully placed near Feng Ming’s foot. Chaos would ensue shortly.

  Feng Ming waited nervously as the auction proceeded. It was one thing to kill a few people, but it was an entirely different thing to catch a crowd in an inescapable dragnet. For this, they needed a distraction.

  Maybe I should eat that weird flower for now, he thought. Under the curious gazes of the surrounding cultivators, he withdrew the crystal globe from his robes and shattered it. A wonderful fragrance wafted out to them, causing them to twitch nervously. Feng Ming wasn’t sure if it was fear of the unknown or fear of the ten core-formation cultivators outside that kept them in check.

  Ignoring their greedy looks, he popped the delicate ochre-and-jade flower into his mouth. It immediately dissolved and bypassed his body, entering his soul directly. As it did, he instinctively became aware of the function of the flower—to increase merit by twenty-five percent. For most people, this would be a piddling amount, but for Feng Ming, it was an enormous quantity. His soul was immediately surrounded by a thick jade glow, which immediately began syphoning toward his resplendent vestment. Soon, a jade rune just like the first appeared on the white garment.

  Feng Ming’s cultivation automatically began evolving. The qi of heaven and earth rushed toward his body unbidden as it caused his core to increase in diameter. It grew rapidly until it reached a bottleneck at one and a half times its original size.

  But to his surprise, it didn’t stop there. The jade glow, which had previously formed a second rune, had also condensed into a third rune. As soon as this happened, Feng Ming’s Dantian let out a soft pop as it expanded to double its initial size, propelling him to early core formation.

  Feng Ming’s breakthrough naturally didn’t go unnoticed. At first, the auctioneer was slightly annoyed that the winner of the flower had taken it out, arousing the envy of nearby cultivators. Once the current auction was completed, he walked over to a nearby guard and instructed him to pass on a message to the first through third protectors. They were to evict the man immediately, before any chaos broke out in the auction hall.

  He then continued with the auction. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as smoothly as expected. In the middle of a fierce bout of bidding, the heaven and earth qi in the room suddenly rushed over to the man who had taken out the flower. Who would have thought that someone could immediately break through just by consuming the flower?

  He immediately halted the auction. “Everyone, please bear with me for a moment. First through ninth protectors, seize that man. I sense merit glow on him.”

  This was, of course, pure nonsense. He just didn’t have a legitimate reason to kick the man out, so he made one up on the spot.

  Nine core-formation cultivators rushed into the room. Including himself, there were ten core-formation cultivators overseeing the auction. It wasn’t a large force by any means, but rather the minimum allowable for any traveling auction house in their organization.

  The nine black-cloaked protectors very cautiously approached the man who was breaking through. They brandished their weapons, approaching him with a set of black chains.

  But why would he break through now, of all times? the auctioneer wondered. Isn’t that just suicide? Unless… could it be a distraction?

  The auctioneer directed his resplendent force to the entrance of the hall and found it was obstructed. He pushed against the obstruction aggressively until it shattered. To his surprise, he saw a large blue circle containing ten thousand high-grade spirit stones, which were rapidly being ground to dust.

  “Everyone, attack the man at the entrance, or we’re all dead!” the auctioneer suddenly shouted. He pushed open the large black doors leading into the hall, revealing a blue-robed man and three small animals. The man held a pillarlike staff; he stood guard in front of the blue formation. Its energy was rapidly feeding a grid on the floor. The blue lines were so cold that white frost covered the floor beside them.

  The nine protectors immediately pounced toward the door while the other cultivators were finally coming to grips with the situation.

  “I said everyone!” the infuriated auctioneer yelled. The chaotic mass of customers immediately regained their composure and assumed battle positions against the blue-robed man.

  Earlier, Cha Ming had seen three of the core-formation cultivators patrolling the outside perimeter rushing into the hall. It was less than expected, but he’d have to make do. To his surprise, however, the energies of heaven and earth in his surroundings suddenly thinned and rushed to the auction hall. The six remaining protectors rushed in as well.

  I have no idea what he’s doing, but it’s working, Cha Ming thought. He threw out thirty-six flags and rapidly painted the complex lines of a Water-Gathering Formation. It was a formation he’d grown very comfortable with in his time in Songjing.

  Sixty breaths later, the formation thrummed to life. He then painted a few dozen more lines, connecting the energy-gathering formation to a nearby formation eye. He tossed out ten thousand high-grade spirit stones onto the sacrificial formation. They began crumbling to dust as their energy was rapidly converted to the purest water energy that then seeped into rapidly growing runic lines.

  Cha Ming took a deep breath and summoned Huxian and his two friends. The floor crumbled as he increased his weight to a phenomenal 400,000 jin, and he increased the Clear Sky Staff’s diameter to two feet and its length to twenty-four feet. Its weight grew to 40,
000 jin, which was slightly lower than his fist strength.

  Shortly after, the black doors to the auction hall burst open, revealing the auctioneer, nine protectors, and hundreds of enraged cultivators. To his surprise, they ignored Feng Ming, who was calmly breaking through in the center of the room.

  “That lucky bastard,” Cha Ming muttered as he braced himself for the onslaught.

  “Go tie a few of them up,” Cha Ming said to Huxian and his friends. “I’ll handle whoever gets through.”

  “You got it, bro,” Huxian said as he split into two and executed his familiar style. A domain of white light expanded from the white fox and began eroding the many cultivators in the auction hall. Unsurprisingly, the light’s purifying powers affected some more than others. Many of them roared as they changed shapes to their devilish forms in a futile attempt to ward off the light’s powers.

  Silverwing let out a piercing cry as he flew out toward two of the nine protectors. His silver wing strikes forced them to direct all their attention on defending. Meanwhile, Lei Jiang burst out with frightening power. Lightning was the bane of evil creatures, and the nine protectors were just that. They transformed to fight off the iridescent lightning and finally supressed Lei Jiang with two of their members.

  “Shoot everything you have at the man with the pillar!” one of the protectors shouted. He raised his sword and accumulated core-formation qi into a malevolent flame. The four others followed suit, activating the black runes on their bodies to push their power up to early core formation. The two hundred cultivators behind them also charged up various attacks.

  Seeing that only half of the grand formation was active, Cha Ming activated two mid-grade ice-shield combat formations. Then he activated a Hardening Talisman and three Myriad Ice Shield Talismans he’d purchased from Luo Ming before swatting at them with what he now called the Clear Sky Pillar.

  Fire and ice burned his body simultaneously as techniques breached his defenses. Metal cut his skin and earthen spikes bruised his muscles as they bypassed the large staff and hammered into him. His strong body ripped away any vines that managed to sneak in and wrap around his arms and legs. The pillar continued through the barrage of blows unimpeded and smashed into two of the core-formation cultivators. The lead cultivator’s body wasn’t weak, so he managed to survive the blow with only a little damage to his internals. The one on his right, however, wasn’t so lucky; he was mostly a qi cultivator that dabbled in devil arts, so he was reduced to nothing more than a meat patty.

  Seventy-five percent of the formation was activated by the time the wave of blows came to an end. Many gouges and burns on Cha Ming’s body were healing rapidly. His marrow worked double time to replenish the flesh and blood required for regeneration.

  “One last wave,” the lead cultivator yelled. “We almost have him!”

  Cha Ming gritted his teeth as he prepared to defend against their last stand. His strength was bolstered by what he’d seen as he toured the underground facility—hundreds of trained slaves, to be used as vitality farms, soul farms, and cultivation furnaces by the cultivators who purchased them. What these people did was an abomination, and only by killing them here and now could he stop them from performing more of these atrocities.

  Chapter 20: Anonymous

  Feng Ming awoke to a scene of chaos. A blue formation was rapidly forming behind Cha Ming as a mass of cultivators began attacking him in tandem. Huxian, Lei Jiang, and Silverwing had flown out to supress some of the core-formation cultivators and divert some attention from Cha Ming.

  Why did they start fighting without me? he thought, only to realize that in retrospect, breaking through in the middle of a covert auction would definitely attract some attention. He sighed inwardly and projected his lucky aura to his companions. The attacks against Cha Ming clustered together at the last second, and his pillar smashed down and fortunately knocked most of them out from the air. Wounds still covered his body from head to toe, but he’d seen Cha Ming in worse shape.

  Meanwhile, Silverwing’s attacks began finding timely gaps in his opponent’s defenses, while their counterattacks kept striking his thickest feathers. As for Lei Jiang, the random lightning bolts surrounding him seemed to grow a sense of purpose; they bypassed his opponents’ defenses while residual sparks landed on large numbers of unfortunate cultivators.

  Seeing that everything was under control, Feng Ming focused his attention on the only person who wasn’t accounted for—the auctioneer. The man stood calmly, waiting for Feng Ming to attack him.

  “Why didn’t you kill me when I was cultivating?” Feng Ming said.

  “What? And incur the wrath of heaven and get struck by a lightning bolt?” the auctioneer said sarcastically. “I recognize those four. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who you are. I wouldn’t be caught dead tangling with you.”

  “You make a lot of sense, but I don’t think you have any choice in the matter,” Feng Ming said. He summoned his lucky spear and activated his Fire General’s Steps. His movements were rapid and crisp, ideal for generating power in his spear strikes.

  The auctioneer grunted and threw out sixteen sabers, which collided against Feng Ming’s spear while the man himself stepped backward. Feng Ming could tell he was a middle-core-formation cultivator, so he was perplexed to see him retreat. The auctioneer withdrew a slip of paper from his robes and poured qi inside it. The man yelped as he dropped the talisman, which burst into a spatial crack.

  “Really?” the man yelled. “A defective talisman? I even made this one myself. The odds aren’t even one in a million, when most talismans won’t even form with defects. This is exactly why I didn’t attack you earlier!”

  The man sent out another sixteen blades to complement those already attacking Feng Ming. They gathered together in a hasty formation, which was promptly pried apart by Feng Ming’s lucky spear. The auctioneer took out one more talisman. This time, the runes seemed to activate properly. However, the man threw it out at the last second, and an even greater spatial crack appeared.

  “Third time’s the charm,” the overly talkative auctioneer said. He took out a small core treasure, a brooch that formed a golden shield. It deflected Feng Ming’s spear just in time for him to activate the third talisman. This time the man disappeared without a trace. Moments later, the grand formation activated.

  “What terrible luck,” Feng Ming muttered. Unbeknownst to him, the auctioneer lost an arm in the teleportation process and said those exact same words.

  “I never realized just how potent this luck thing can be,” Cha Ming said as he batted away a fourth salvo of joint attacks. Somehow, his formation malfunctioned in just the right way, and the additional burst of energy boosted the completion from ninety-four percent to ninety-nine percent. Then, the Icy Hell Grand Formation glowed light blue. Shards of ice materialized on the edges of the circular shield, which blocked off any escape routes. This included the circular corridor—Cha Ming controlled the delicate shards to incapacitate the servants and lesser guards in the perimeter. Then, he methodically impaled one evil cultivator after another.

  His opponents’ movements became sluggish. With the support of the Icy Hell Grand Formation and Huxian’s dual suppression, they quickly gained the upper hand. Cha Ming’s Devil-Sealing Intent was mixed in with the icy formation; some of the weaker devils even perished before the shards of ice touched them.

  A single slap of the Clear Sky Pillar caused dozens of men and women to perish. A single flap of Silverwing’s wings decapitated a core-formation cultivator. The battle was sealed once Feng Ming joined in. His blazing spear joined wind and lightning, light and darkness, and ice and staff to put an end to the evil cultivators. An incense time later, every man and woman who had participated in the auction was dead.

  “What should we do with the bodies?” Feng Ming said as he unmasked one person after another. He recognized many of them—they were from the upper echelons of society, most of them part of the crown prince’s faction. Meanw
hile, Huxian, Lei Jiang, and Silverwing were busy looting the corpses. After all, beast meat and medicinal ingredients were expensive, and beast monarchs had their pride.

  “The bodies of those who’ve undergone a devilish transformation have disappeared,” Cha Ming said. “As for the others… I have an idea.” He explained his thoughts to Feng Ming.

  “It’s not that I’m against being anonymous, but how am I going to get kicked out of the city if they don’t pin my name on this?” Feng Ming asked.

  “You said one of them escaped?” Cha Ming asked, and Feng Ming nodded. “Then they’ll know. If you take credit for this, Prince Tian won’t be able to justify driving you out. It would look far too suspicious to chase you away after you’ve accomplished such meritorious achievements.”

  Feng Ming’s mood brightened. “Who said Brother Jun was the only one with a head on their shoulders? Do you think we could tip the crown prince off while we’re at it?”

  Cha Ming nodded. “That we can.”

  Marshal Feng woke up at dawn like he always did. Although he was a core-formation cultivator who didn’t require sleep, he felt it had some psychological benefits. As a man with substantial military achievements, he didn’t have to argue against anyone about this quirk of his.

  A soft knock sounded on his door as he ritually groomed his healthy beard. “Come in,” he said.

  His assistant, General Tang, saluted as he entered and waited beside the marshal until he finished. He was used to the marshal’s morning ritual and knew full well that the man didn’t like to be interrupted.

  “You don’t usually come see me so early in the morning unless something important has happened,” Marshal Feng said. “What is it this time?”

  “Reporting to the marshal: A dome of darkness was discovered surrounding a small place called the Honey Badger Inn this morning,” General Tang said. “The dome is a full hundred feet in diameter.”