Pure Jade

by Patrick Laplante

  “Are you sure you don’t want to stay a little while longer?” Li Yin asked him. The fatigue that had accumulated over the years had finally faded from his aging face. He was no longer overburdened with injured and malnourished villagers.

  “It’s time for me to go, teacher,” Cha Ming said. “I know there is a place for me in this village, but there’s so much more that I can do outside. If I stay any longer, it will be to the detriment of my friends.”

  He didn’t tell the whole truth about Xiao Heilong. It was best if he quietly found the man and defeated him without their knowledge.

  Though sad, he found he was excited at the prospect of seeing and experiencing new things. Momentum was like that. Now that he had started moving, he didn’t want to stop, lest resistance grasp him with its sharp claws.

  Li Yin nodded. “It’s good that you know this, and that you know your direction. You’ve grown up, Cha Ming. Before, you were in a pit of despair and self-blame. Now you’ve learned to take responsibility for your actions, and you know what it is you should do.” Li Yin’s eyes turned red as he began tearing up. He hugged Cha Ming tightly and whispered to him, “Take care of yourself out there. It can be a cruel world, but never give up hope.”

  Cha Ming couldn’t help but shed a tear as well. He looked at all the villagers that had gathered, all the children who were sad to see him leave. He had treated half of them in his time as Li Yin’s apprentice. He still felt a lot of guilt over the pains they had suffered these past years, but they seemed to have forgiven him. Over half the village had shown up to wish him safe travels.

  After saying a few more goodbyes, he turned around and walked through the well-worn path that now led to and from the village. The path was both familiar and unfamiliar. It was lightly covered in snow, but he could see firmly pressed stones beneath the light dusting. It was the same path he had led Lei Dong through, the same path the bandits had taken on their way to the village. Yet as he walked through the woods, he passed three wagons and four horses. Such traffic would have been unimaginable only three years prior.

  After leaving the woods, Cha Ming let out a deep sigh and summoned a flying sword, which he used to fly over the river to the next village on his way to the nearest city.

  A few days later, Cha Ming was already halfway to Quicksilver City. He rested in inns as he traveled and ate meals at dozens of villages, enjoying himself immensely. After all, he had spent three years cooped up a small town and a mine. He yearned for discovery and variety.

  He ate today’s meal at a quaint inn, whose walls were built with a peculiar but fragrant wood. It also sported a large bar, which was currently occupied by a very large man.

  “It’s the twentieth time this week, I tell you,” the burly man said softly. If Cha Ming didn’t have incandescent force, he would have struggled to hear it. “Merchants don’t want to come down here any longer. Whenever the Imperial Army makes the rounds to clear them out, they end up settling everything with just a few words.” The bartender shrugged to avoid the conversation, but the man continued regardless. “This thieving can’t go on. Otherwise, how will I continue my trade? I may as well pack up and leave!”

  “Why do you stay around here, anyway?” the bartender said. “A spiritual blacksmith such as yourself doesn’t need to live so far away from Quicksilver. Besides, the thieving isn’t so bad. No one dies in these exchanges. It’s just simple robberies, that’s all. And they don’t even take everything. They wouldn’t even touch your iron.”

  “But I can’t ship my weapons off to other villages,” the blacksmith complained. “And what do you mean spiritual blacksmith? I’m just a failure, a second-grade spiritual blacksmith. I’m not worth anything near the capital, so I have no choice but to stay out here to scrape out a living.”

  The man took a long pull from his mug of ale. “Back to thievery, though. It’s not enough that people don’t die during the robberies. The merchants are never the same after they get robbed. It’s like they lose their will to live. They return to the city, and their businesses go under. Most of them hang themselves afterward. No one wants to make the trip anymore because they fear for their very souls.”

  The bartender scrunched his brows but didn’t reply.

  Cha Ming, who had heard everything, sat down at the bar beside the man. He slapped twenty spirit stones on the counter. “Please buy this friend a drink,” Cha Ming said.

  Seeing the glittering stones, the bartender nodded and placed a pot of wine on the bar. “For yourself?” he asked.

  “I don’t drink wine,” Cha Ming replied. “Tea will do. The best you have.” He then turned to the blacksmith. The man looked confused. “No need to be alarmed, friend. I heard the conversation you were having just now, and I’ve encountered something similar in a faraway place. There was once a village where individuals bewitched soldiers. Have you heard descriptions of the thieves?”

  The man hesitated, then nodded.

  “Could you please describe them in detail?”

  He nodded once more. After taking a swift drink, he spoke in a hushed voice. “It’s no secret, and nothing I haven’t told half the village,” the blacksmith said. “There was once a merchant who was robbed, but instead of heading back, he came to this village. His face was pale. His hands shaking. It was as though he’d seen a ghost. So I asked him, ‘What happened to make you look pale as a sheet?’ To which he replied, ‘I saw the devil. At the bridge crossing Salmon Creek. She was a bewitching beauty, her hair long and black as night, her skin pale as white jade. And her eyes—when I looked into her eyes, I lost a piece of my soul. Barely enough was left over, as though she fed on the feelings of despair that shook me.’

  “Then he went on to describe the bandits. They were all women, and they only stole precious metals and spirit stones. The rest they left in the wagon, all packed up and pretty. The merchant and his guards didn’t stand a chance. As they rode off, he was left with the great urge to return home and liquidate his assets, then send them to an account in the city. He was overwhelmed, so he stopped in the village for a drink.

  “The man stayed for a few days, after which he hung himself in despair,” the blacksmith finished.

  Cha Ming frowned as he assembled the pieces of the puzzle. He had never encountered a creature that could devour souls, but he had fought some that could bewitch them. Then again, he’d only fought against devil cultivators below foundation establishment. Did their abilities change at higher levels?

  He also remembered the gold-gathering formation in Fairweather. Stealing precious metals and spirit stones was something a creature like the Merchant would do. That being the case, it was highly possible that two devils were acting together.

  “Do you know anything about the Imperial Army patrol that went out?” Cha Ming asked. “Like the strength of their leader?”

  “I’m not sure about that,” the blacksmith replied, “but I know that most patrols are headed by someone between initial and middle-foundation establishment. It’s the requirement to become a captain in the Quicksilver Empire.”

  Cha Ming recalled the guard captain in the small village and his impressive cultivation. It seemed that he’d only been a frog in the well. From the maps that he’d seen, the Quicksilver Empire was several times the size of the tiny Song Kingdom. In addition, it was much wealthier. It made sense that the qualifications to be considered powerful here were much higher than his home kingdom.

  “Many thanks,” Cha Ming said. He drank his tea in a single gulp. He then walked out of the bar and took off on his flying sword toward the east. He didn’t want to rush into their dwelling on the mountains, as that would be very dangerous. Instead, he opted for the safer approach.

  And for that, he needed bait.

  A merchant’s wagon was racing swiftly toward the west, its horses sweating from exhaustion. They could sense the driver’s fear as he whipped them, trying to speed them across the dangerous stretch of road. His friend, a spice merchant, had been accosted near
that damnable bridge. Word had spread quickly, and the steady flow of merchants to the eastern parts of the dynasty had dried up.

  In other words, demand had peaked while supply remained desperately low. Liu Hao sensed an opportunity, and a merchant so poor as himself couldn’t turn down such a potential windfall. He figured he was smarter than the rest of them. He had bought the swiftest horses available and picked up several mercenaries before leaving. Heck, he’d picked up an extra one in the town just before the bridge to be sure.

  The special enchanted cloth covering the wagon could resist fire and arrows. The wagon contained chests of holding to maximize its carrying capacity. He brought with him both expensive goods and bulk goods in large quantities. Even simple commodities had sky-high prices due to the decrease in shipments. Liu Hao figured he could earn three times his initial investment on this trip. He would also get to keep the horses, the carriages, and the chests to boot.

  Suddenly his horses neighed. The wagon slowed to a crawl. Panicking, he whipped the horses bloody to get them moving, but they refused to budge. They stood there placidly like they were enjoying a good brushing. He had never seen anything so strange in his life.

  In the distance, a dozen people approached from the side on horses.

  “Dammit,” he cursed softly. “You better all be ready to defend the wagon. If you don’t, I’ll report you to the mercenary association.”

  The men in the wagon shifted uncomfortably. Ultimately, they drew their weapons. Failing to accomplish a mission had dire repercussions in their line of work, where reputation was everything.

  The opposing horses stopped fifty feet away. The merchant looked at their leader nervously; he had heard far too many rumors about what happened to the people they caught. The common consensus was that anyone who met them would go mad. Still, as he looked at her, he realized that things couldn’t be further from the truth. A fair-skinned lady such as herself must be in dire straits to resort to a robbery. Perhaps it would be best to just give her his wares and be done with it. He could recoup his losses on the bulk goods he brought. Yes, that would be best.

  As he continued looking, her charming blue eyes, deep like endless oceans, met his. He wished for nothing more than to lose himself in them, so he let himself go. He let himself float in the ocean in his dreams, only to realize that it wasn’t such a calm ocean as he had imagined. Rather, it was an ocean filled with sharks and other dangerous creatures.

  He felt a sharp stab of pain as something bit his foot off. A hideous aquatic creature surfaced and shot him a toothy grin as it munched on his flesh. Unsatisfied, it bit off his other leg and followed up with his arm. He could barely stand the pain. Unfortunately, he didn’t faint. It was as though his only path of retreat—losing consciousness—had been cut off. He could only look on in despair as he was eaten alive.

  Suddenly he felt a stirring in the ocean. The aquatic creature roared as it abandoned its attempt to devour him and plunged back into the waters. Relieved, he continued floating until he finally drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter 6: Eyes of Pure Jade

  Cha Ming was surrounded by an endless ocean. He floated there, seemingly helpless. He knew what lurked beneath the sea. The tentacled monstrosity’s maw was wide open and ready to tear into his incandescent soul. That is, if it could get its tentacles on him in the first place.

  This was a dream. To be more precise, it was a forced mental projection, a hybrid of his mind and another. The skies were white, unnaturally so. He wasn’t worried, however. The white sky was his domain, and it shone much brighter than the ocean below. He harnessed the power of the sky and sunk down into the ocean, breathing it in as he would air. The pupils of the large creature below dilated as it saw his fearless approach. It struck at him with its large tentacles.

  He could tell instinctively that these two worlds were a representation of their souls. His soul was much stronger. He imagined his surroundings covered in a black mist, and it was so. The water around him evaporated to nothing as it contacted the barrier of pure destruction that surrounded him. As the tentacles whipped toward him, they too were burned and disintegrated after striking the impenetrable shield.

  The creature below roared in anger. He smirked at the evil monster, summoning the Clear Sky Brush and hefting it with two hands like a spear. He focused the power of his soul into it, elongating it forward a full mile and piercing the ocean-dwelling creature in the eye. It let out an aggrieved howl before the reality around him shimmered, then collapsed into nothingness.

  Cha Ming woke to a woman’s scream. He looked around himself calmly, only to see that the mercenaries in the wagon had all fainted. This was normal, of course. They were foolish in thinking that their cultivations, which were only at the peak of qi condensation, could allow them to withstand these “thieves.”

  As he walked out, he saw several women huddled around their beautiful leader, who had fallen from her horse. She glared at Cha Ming venomously, her right eye bleeding profusely. This development was intriguing to Cha Ming. After all, he hadn’t expected the results of their mental battle to transfer so well to the physical world.

  Seeing his nonchalant expression, she stood up and glared at him. “Surely there is a misunderstanding,” she said in a high-pitched voice like that of a songbird. He swooned slightly when he heard it. “If sir would take the time to discuss, I’m sure we can come to an agreement.”

  His blood raced as he heard her voice. His heartbeat quickened. The thought of doing anything possible to please her flirted with his mind.

  “No,” Cha Ming said, thoroughly suppressing his urges. “I don’t believe this is a misunderstanding. I know who I came to find.” Then he materialized his Clear Sky Staff and pounced toward them. He headed toward the injured one, who was coincidentally the biggest source of trouble.

  “Kill him!” the woman yelled.

  As he closed in on her, his movements faltered as his mind was assaulted by ten others simultaneously. They were all top-class beauties, and the movements they made while approaching him with daggers drawn entranced him. Each step was seductive, and even the way they wielded their daggers seemed to have certain unwholesome implications. He almost didn’t notice a tomboyish-looking figure that snuck behind him, threatening to tear him apart from behind. Almost.

  His staff swung backward, smashing against the tender girl who thought she had caught him unaware. A soft ping sounded as a large amount of recoil shot up his arm. Dodging to the side, he saw that the girl’s skin had turned golden, just like the Merchant in Fairweather. Her feet sunk into the soft ground below her.

  “Support me!” she yelled. The ten others nodded, focusing their attention on Cha Ming as the girl rushed toward him with fists bared.

  He clicked his tongue but didn’t fight her head on. Instead, he bashed her with his lengthened staff from the side and used his Soft Staff Art to dive behind her toward his initial target, the mastermind behind the thefts. The beauty’s face turned pale as a sheet as a quake staff crashed down and shattered her skull and spine. As soon as he struck her down, however, a searing pain blinded him, causing him to take a blow from behind his head.

  The world was a blur. He couldn’t see, and he could barely stand. The pain faded quickly, just in time for him to block a kick to his face that surely would have killed him. As he stood up, still dizzy from the trauma to his head, he saw an entirely different world.

  All around him, he could only see various shades of gray. Curious, he looked at his own hand. It was covered in a slight shade of green.

  An aged voice whispered through the wind. Can you see what I see with these eyes of pure jade?

  Cha Ming saw ten yellow silhouettes and one shining with a malevolent ochre glow. It was the girl with the golden body.

  Is she different from the others in some way aside from her golden body? he wondered. The ten others had similar abilities to the one he had just killed. No, that isn’t true. Their combined assault isn’t even a fifth of h
er initial assault. It was as though their technique was an empty shell, a piece of glass posing as precious porcelain.

  Their pressure was still present, so he resolved to rid himself of it as soon as possible. After exchanging six rapid but jarring blows with the gold-bodied girl, he broke away from the ochre figure and instantly killed one of her bewitching assistants, who had clearly not broken through to foundation establishment or its equivalent.

  She paused her assault, so he continued mowing them down one by one. But when he finally turned around to meet her in combat, he was horrified by what he saw. The pretty, tomboyish girl from before was now missing her entire hand. Golden blood oozed from the bones where the hand had been previously. She held the severed appendage as she chewed on its golden finger bones. Her aura climbed at a frightening pace as she devoured the golden flesh.

  Cha Ming wasn’t so foolish as to let her increase her fighting strength, so he rushed toward her with his staff, attacking her remaining arm with the strongest blows possible. Despite being made of metal, it bent unnaturally with every blow.

  At this moment, he wished that he had a reliable fire technique. Fire was the nemesis of gold, so he suspected it would have a pronounced effect against her. Even water would have some effect, since metal fed water. Her resistance to physical blows was astonishing. Only his sword staff and plain physical attacks had much of an effect on her. Barely.

  They continued fighting blow for blow, but despite his best efforts, Cha Ming was unable to obtain an advantage in their confrontation. His energy reserves were dwindling, and he had difficulty evaluating his opponent. She clearly didn’t have the same limitations as a human. He began panicking, unsure if he could sustain his continuous assault. His clothes were drenched in sweat, his arms burned, and his hands were numb from the continuous recoil of his constant attacks.