The Path through the Heavens: A LitRPG Wuxia Series (The Heavenly Throne Book 6)

by Yuri Ajin

  Such artifacts were the staple of most monsters and Plants’ diets. But these nutrient-rich items would eventually get depleted, forcing the Plants to look for a new home wherever it might be.

  Members of the Anarchists didn’t even know about the existence of this particular Flower, so they were looking for something similar — the Two-Bladed Flower, as it was much more common and less valuable. However, all it did was help in mastering the Force of Form.

  Lightus, on the other hand, spotted the Three-Bladed Flower with a special artifact — a trinket that most powerful aristocrats and members of great families possessed and used if they thought that there was an extremely rare item nearby. The artifact provided them with a short description of the find and its approximate location.

  Kai had Rune’Tan. According to him, the Three-Bladed Flower was quite common in his homeland, but not in Nikrim, if Lightus’ reaction was anything to go by.

  “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” Lightus moved his foot off Ranmaru’s head and lifted him up, tightly squeezing his neck, making him wheeze. “You’ll either give me the Flower, or I’ll kill your friends one by one. I’m not a patient man, Kai, so you better hurry.”

  Kai felt the alien Field begin to affect him less. Lightus was giving him a chance to surrender...

  ...but he’d rather take a risk and use the Mask of a Great Liar.

  Taking it out, he simultaneously activated its ability — Absolute Deception, which made it possible to distort reality, deceiving everyone who wasn’t strong enough to resist the illusion. It could be activated at any stage, but it had only three charges.

  Closing his eyes, Kai imagined giving Lightus the Flower. He planned to deceive the elf, grab his friends, and hide. It wouldn’t be until tomorrow that Lightus would realize that he didn’t have the Three-Bladed Flower.

  Energy poured into the Mask and the ability was activated. The item shone, one charge disappeared, and then...

  ...Lightus’ diadem flared up and its description changed from:

  [Whole Soul Diadem]

  Rank: Royal

  Quality: Peak

  Features: ???

  To:

  [The Third Eye of True Sight]

  Rank: ???

  Quality: Peak

  Features: ???

  “Bloody Heavens!” Rune’Tan hissed angrily. “This is bad. This is a pseudo-Divine-rank artifact! It looks like it and the Mask are paired items. The illusion won’t work!”

  “I see that now, old man! But there’s nothing I can do about it!” Kai objected as Lightus’ Field began to push him back, almost toppling him over into the snow.

  Lightus stared at the description, just as shocked as Kai was, struggling to regain his composure.

  Several years ago, just after his successful breakthrough to the Exorcist Stage and score of nine point one on the Test, he visited the family treasury, built by the founder himself. There, his father allowed him to choose a sword. Having picked a blade for himself — the same one he carried now — his intuition whispered to him to take the dust-covered diadem lying in the corner, seemingly forgotten. As an artifact that protected its wearer from spirit attacks, it wasn’t very valuable for the Sixt family, so Lightus was allowed to take it with him even though he didn’t know why he needed it.

  Until today.

  Seeing the Mask, which, just like the Third Eye, disappeared during the ancient war, Lightus realized that it hadn’t been intuition that whispered to him to take the unremarkable diadem, but the blood of his ancestor, the creator of both artifacts, calling out to him.

  “I should’ve known. One of Light’s aspects is Distortion...” Lightus thought, finally coming to his senses.

  Noticing that Lightus was lost in thought, Malvur forced himself to get up, and, putting what little strength remained in him into a dash, attacked.

  “Hm? How cute.”

  Lightus swung his sword, releasing a dense wave of incinerating light that threw Malvur aside, knocking him down for good, and tightened his grip on Ranmaru’s neck. A ring of light appeared around it from under Lightus’ palm.

  There was a crunch.

  Ranmaru’s corpse fell into the snow with a thud. Lightus raised his free hand and opened his palm. Blades made of light formed in the air and pierced An’na, Malvur, and Ailenx’s chests.

  “There’s nowhere left to hide,” Lightus whispered and threw the Bindings Lights Technique at Kai. He disappeared, reappearing a mile away, right next to Shacks. Although he was badly injured, the archer never stopped protecting his friends with arrows and doubles from afar.

  Shacks didn’t have time to evade Lightus’ scabbard. His bow flew to the side, and his hands turned to mush. The second blow only grazed him, cutting along his thigh, forcing him to kneel.

  Lightus was preparing to finish him off when Shacks suddenly opened his mouth, revealing a translucent blue ball hiding behind his teeth. Lightus rushed forward, but he didn’t manage to reach him even at full speed. Shacks swallowed the item and instantly disappeared.

  How did he move so far so quickly? Lightus wondered. Without preparation? Was it an Imperial-rank artifact? Whatever. Not that it matters...

  “You can run all you want, you pitiful little man, but you can’t escape.”

  Changing targets, Lightus approached Kai and reactivated the weakening Field. Kai found himself hovering in the air right in front of him. He couldn’t even give control over his body to Rune’Tan so that he’d somehow save him from this predicament. Not that it’d matter even if he could. There was hardly anything Rune’Tan could do against Lightus.

  “Thousands of years ago. No. Several lifetimes ago, my race fought yours with the Sixt family at the forefront. We won glory, but along with it, we suffered serious losses. Now, there’s peace between our races. But this...” Lightus tore the Mask off Kai’s face. “Belongs to my family. I don’t know where you got it. Perhaps you’re a descendant of the thief who dared to steal it from us... Not only did you keep it for yourself, having seen my family’s coat of arms on it, but you also dared to spend one of its precious charges!” Lightus exclaimed, enraged. “And now you’ll suffer the consequences.”

  Unsheathing his sword, he cut off all Kai’s limbs with one clean move.

  Kai began to regenerate almost immediately, but the power of Light that remained in the wounds didn’t allow it.

  “Not only that, but you tried to do it in front of me! The Sixt heir! By the right given to me by the Heavens upon my birth, I forever name you and your accomplices enemies of the Sixt family. They got off easy. But you... Oh, I have something special in store for you.”

  The blade sank into Kai’s abdomen and lit up, burning him like a brand.

  He groaned, clenching his teeth to the point of breaking them. Everything inside him was on fire. The blade sank deeper and deeper, going through his skin, flesh, organs, Shell, and then reaching his Source, burning a hole in it.

  “N... No...”

  With a gasp, Kai fell into the snow, no longer constrained by the Field. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t even breathe. His consciousness slowly faded, taking with it the realization that this was the end of his journey as a cultivator.

  “No... I... It can’t end... Not like this...”

  Having sheathed his blade and returned it to his Ring, Lightus grabbed Kai by his hair, and dragged him to his friends.

  Pity that we’ve lost our opportunity to get the Key. No matter, the Flower is more valuable, Lightus thought, throwing Kai on the pile of corpses. “Kai Arnhard, you’re going to make our interrogators very happy. They hadn’t had a chance to play in a long time... I fear they might’ve lost their edge.”

  But Kai didn’t hear him.

  ***

  “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue? You’ll either give me the Flower, or I’ll kill your friends one by one. I’m not a patient man, Kai, so you better hurry.”

  Kai’s mind and body trembled. Cold sweat dripped down his ba
ck, and his breathing quickened. The memory of the massacre and his death as a cultivator flashed before his eyes again and again.

  No, no. He shook his head. That’s not real. It’s not real. It might happen one day. But not now. And not here.

  The Cold Void almost immediately put his mind in order, allowing him to finally notice that the soul energy reserve he had been accumulating to restore Rune’Tan’s strength had disappeared.

  “I had to show you those visions. I wouldn’t have done it without your permission otherwise,” came Rune’Tan’s tired voice.

  “Are these visions... Is this the power of your bloodline?”

  “It was. I hate to admit it, but I don’t have full control over this ability of mine,” Rune’Tan replied. “But what’s important is that we saw what will happen. Refusing him would be the end of you. You have no choice. Give him the Plant.”

  Kai nodded.

  “I yield,” he said. “However, I’ll give you the Flower in exchange for ten million Coins and your diadem. I think it’ll be even cheaper than your first offer.”

  “Are you kidding me? Do you really think that my offer still stands? Do you take me for a fool? I probably would’ve agreed to these conditions earlier, but now... You’re no longer in a position to make demands. Either give me the Flower, or...”

  Instead of finishing his threat, Lightus let go of Ranmaru, who fell into the snow, still alive, and waved his hand, releasing two small blades made of light that cut through both Ranmaru’s carotid arteries.

  “He’ll bleed out if you don’t hurry. And before you get all smug and tell me he can regenerate on his own, he can’t. I’m preventing him from doing so. I’ll even speed up the bleeding if you make me wait too long,” Lightus said. “The longer you take, the less chance he has of being saved by a Healing Potion or technique.”

  “Fine. You can take the fucking Flower,” Kai said, removing the herb out of the Night Space hidden in his body.

  “Thank you.” Lightus grinned, snatching the plant from his hands. “You’re all free to go.”

  The Field’s pressure disappeared. Kai immediately rushed to Ranmaru, taking out a Healing Potion from his Ring on his way to him.

  “Farewell, Kai,” Lightus said, walking toward his subordinates. He didn’t bother turning around. “See you at the games.”

  “What are you talking about?” Kai asked, heading to Ailenx who also needed help.

  But there was no answer.

  Lightus was gone.

  Satisfied, the hooded figure got up from the mountain top above the battlefield and left as well.

  Chapter 28

  A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL

  Kai opened his eyes.

  Upon returning to the Abode after losing the fight for the Flower, he went to a special room in his new house on the fourth floor and meditated. Inside these rooms, the density of prana was much higher than in other places. These kinds of facilities had always been required for meditation, as the deeper it was, the faster ki was spent. This was especially helpful for average cultivators who, unlike Kai, needed years or even decades to prepare their souls for a breakthrough. For this, they needed places with an increased density of prana, where their ki would be restored much faster.

  After what happened, he needed to thoroughly analyze everything and rethink his plan.

  That kind of power... Lightus proved he was worthy of his place, Kai admitted with a sigh. But how come he was right there? Was it a coincidence? I doubt it. The Three-Bladed Flower is incredibly rare in Nikrim. No wonder there was so little information about it in the Abode. Then how did he know about it? Why did he follow us? Why did he wait for us to kill the Crow when he and his posse could’ve probably killed it much quicker? Perhaps he couldn’t be bothered. Or he didn’t want to risk having one of his men wounded. Hell, with the amount of Coin and power he has, he could’ve bought that entire zone, preventing trespassing. He offered me thirty million for the Flower. That’s an insane amount of Coins. Even with how much I’m spending right now, I would’ve hardly been able to spend that much in even fifty years at the Abode.

  Stretching his sore limbs, he yawned.

  What’s left then? Was it really a coincidence... Or was there someone else behind it? But who could use Lightus and need me at the same time? The answer seemed obvious. Nomen... He’s clearly stronger than Lightus. An ancient soul who hangs out in the Abode for some reason. Sounds far-fetched… Somehow too complicated. Why would he or someone else need something like that? It’s easier to believe that this was a coincidence rather than a staged meeting. Still, I wouldn’t put it past Nomen... Who knows what he’s capable of? I remember Eria saying that someone told him where and when I’d be on Earth. Who knows what else is possible in this world?

  Kai sighed again, restlessly, and closed his eyes and tried to relax.

  In any case… I lost the Flower, and now I need to look for a new one. I could take Nomen’s offer and then ask for a favor in return, but I don’t like that option. I’d rather spend a few more months or even a year looking for a new Flower than go to him... As a last resort, I could choose Manifestation of the Space element or something else during my breakthrough…

  “There’s at least one good thing that came out of this,” he said to himself, getting up. “I saw and felt Lightus’ true power. And Rune’Tan’s vision... Just like with Greenrow... It was so realistic that it tested my will. I feel like it made it stronger.”

  Exiting the meditation room, he went to the kitchen to make himself some tea. Recently, this had become a habit of his that allowed him to feel like a human and not a soulless machine that could only imitate emotions.

  To him, it wasn’t so much about the beverage itself as it was about the preparation process. In a way, it even gave him pleasure. So much so that he began to dabble in the art of tea, learning how to properly prepare several different varieties of it.

  Once the water had boiled, he put the teapot on a tray, took two cups, and walked to the living room.

  “You aren’t even a little surprised this time!” A white-haired girl in a scarlet dress smiled. The bells in her hair jingled as she shook her head in disappointment. Sitting in one of the chairs, she fervently swung her legs that didn’t reach the floor. “You’ve become stronger. Much stronger.”

  Kai put the tray on the table and sat down.

  “Tea?”

  “Oh, how polite! Not like the first time!” She giggled. “I love tea! Yes, please!”

  Kai filled both cups and put the teapot on the tray.

  “Thank you. Can I have some sugar? I like my tea sweet.”

  “Of course.” Kai nodded and a sugar bowl with a teaspoon appeared on the tray, retrieved from his Ring.

  Kai preferred tea without sugar. In this world, tea was much tastier than on Earth, since it was a Spirit Plant saturated with energy. Then again, back home, he had never tasted anything better than cheap tea brands, so he had nothing good to compare this tea with.

  “Thank you!” She took a sip of the tea. “Oh, and it’s the perfect temperature, too. Let me guess: artifact cups?”

  Instead of replying, Kai also took a sip of the drink.

  “How about you introduce yourself this time?” he said.

  “I’m Sophie! Sophie the Great!” she exclaimed, lifting her chin, and pointed at Kai with her finger, putting one hand to her chest.

  “And who are you, Sophie the Great?”

  “I’m the Key!” she said, all important.

  “And... What do you open?”

  “Um... well...” Sophie hesitated. “Y... You should never ask a Key what it opens! It’s impolite!” She looked sternly at Kai, paused for a while, and then added barely audibly, “Especially when the Key doesn’t know what it opens...”

  “Ah, I apologize,” Kai replied, pretending not to hear the last sentence. “And to what do I owe this pleasure, erm, Sophie the Great?”

  “As you have at last perfectly mastered the Path of Sword’s F
orce of Form, I can finally tell you that you’re a Candidate. You became one by scoring nine points at the Test.”

  “A candidate for what?” Kai asked.

  “For getting the Key. I mean, me,” Sophie replied seriously. “There are currently four Candidates in the Abode. Three of them have already accepted this role, which is enough for the start of the elections. The final person to ask is you. Do you want to join them?”

  “What does this Key, erm, you, actually represent and how will these elections be held?”

  “The old man Airus calls me the Key.” She smiled mysteriously. “But I’m actually a Sword Guardian Spirit of a pseudo-Divine rank! And you’ll soon find out about the elections yourself. And by soon, I mean today.”

  “I see... Who are the other Candidates? And what’s exactly required of me?” Kai asked.

  Sophie’s eyes widened in surprise.

  “You could at least pretend to be surprised and curious...” She sighed. “The rest of the Candidates are a guy with pointy ears, a masked man, and a funny girl... Their names are... Erm, wait, let me think... Right! Lightus, Nomen, and An’na. I think you know all of them. They’re all sword users, just like you,” Sophie replied. “All I need is your consent. This will allow you to participate in the elections. You can back out anytime. However, if you agree, know that until elections, you can’t harm or kill the rest of the Candidates. Neither directly nor indirectly.”

  “Can I trust you?” Kai asked.

  “Do you think I’d lie to you?!” she cried out, offended. “If you want, I’ll take an oath...”

  “That’d be nice.” Kai tried to smile.

  “You’re so rude! Why can’t you just trust me?” Sophie pouted. “Fine! I’ll take an oath!”

  As promised, she took a System oath, dispelling all Kai’s doubts about the veracity of her words.

  “So, I can tap out at any moment and suffer no consequences. It’d be a dumb move to miss out on the opportunity to get such a powerful item...” Kai pondered. “Thoughts?”

  “She’s telling the truth. She wouldn’t have taken the oath otherwise,” Rune’Tan said. “As for her identity, there’s nothing I can tell you. I don’t even feel her. It’s like you’re talking to the air. However, that in itself hints at something close to the divine.”