Claddings of Light : Book 12 of Painting the Mists

by Patrick Laplante

  The elders flickered inside the compound, and Huxian’s clone that was keeping watch from atop Mi Fei’s residence grinned when they came to blows with the Mi Clan and Cao Clan elders. They didn’t use any techniques, or any weapons that could give them away. They wore black robes that obscured their features. Still, they were rune-gathering cultivators, making them difficult opponents.

  Come on, it’s showtime, Huxian thought, observing Daoist Burning Sword from the shadows. As agreed, he mobilized everyone in defense of the manor. Since his last attempted infiltration, Huxian knew the powerful man wasn’t happy with what was happening to Mi Fei. So Huxian had cut a deal with him. He would keep the elders distracted, and in exchange, no Mi Clan elders would die, just like with Cao Shufen’s deal with Wei Longshen.

  The lone exception to this deal was the universally unpopular elder stationed in Mi Fei’s residence. Huxian was glad for that exception—he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to stop Xiao Bai from killing her.

  Huxian redirected the power of most of his clones, keeping just enough awareness in them for them to serve as mobile eyes. For part five of the plan, he would need his remaining strength. He teleported directly into Mi Fei’s residence just in front of the surprised elder.

  “So, the fox returns to the chicken coop,” the older woman said. “I knew you’d come back here.”

  Huxian grinned. “But you didn’t know I’d come with friends.” He opened a gate, and Shneraz and two other Kingfisher guardsmen charged through. They were peak-initiation demons. More than a match for this lone elder.

  “Enemy attack!” the elder yelled, her domain pushing past their dominions and carrying her voice. Unfortunately for her, Huxian had thought ahead. A thin bubble of spatial energy prevented air or mental communication from moving in or out. A neat trick for such an occasion.

  The elder was no slouch. She summoned a sword and hacked at Huxian, who simply jumped back, trapping the blade with chains of space. He then teleported behind her, forcing her to use her world projection to defend. A spatial prison closed around him, locking his movements.

  Unfortunately for her, he wasn’t alone. He’d brought dragons. They hacked through a forest of icy vines that appeared behind her and attacked her unprotected back. She tried to teleport away, but Huxian drew power from all five of his distant friends and enforced a spatial lock. A spear pierced out from her chest, and another from her abdomen.

  “You filthy beast,” she spat. “I’m glad your kind is getting wiped out. There will be nowhere for you to run when this war is over.”

  “Just wait here,” Huxian said. He proceeded to the closet where she’d hidden Xiao Bai and Mi Fei when the fighting broke out.

  “About time,” Xiao Bai said when he took the gag out of her mouth. “One more day, and I would have gone insane.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Huxian said, taking a key out of his pocket. Not the original one, but close enough. He hadn’t done anything stupid like try to steal the key—that would have been damned difficult. Instead, he’d made a generic one. “Your turn, mister dragon.”

  Silver Singer, an instrumental part of his plan, grunted and put his finger to the demon-subduing collar. He began to hum and shape the metal in the key. Eventually, it clicked, and the collar popped open. They didn’t even need to open Mi Fei’s collar, since Xiao Bai crushed it with her bare hands.

  “We need to get moving,” Huxian said. “Everyone is distracted, but that won’t last long.”

  Mi Fei didn’t immediately respond. Instead, she went over to the bleeding elder. She gave her one hard look and summoned a blade of gray mist and decapitated her.

  “Nothing of value was lost,” she said. Then she frowned. “Where’s Wei Longshen? Is he hurt?” Now for the part of the plan Huxian hated. The one that had been forced onto him.

  “Wei Longshen said to deliver a message,” Huxian said. “It’s over. He’s marrying Cao Shufen. You should leave the prefecture and stop thinking about him. You don’t have a future together.”

  “What?” Mi Fei said, tears appearing in her eyes. “No, he would never say that. I need to talk to him.”

  “He sent a letter in case you didn’t believe me,” Huxian said. He handed her the scroll, which she opened and read. She sat down on her bed, trembling. “I… I don’t believe it. I… I just…” She trembled and closed her eyes. Tears streaked down her pretty face. Xiao Bai scowled at him and went over to console her. An important distraction.

  Now for a sleight of hand, Huxian thought. He took the Energy Talisman from his bag of holding and burnt it, focusing on her heart. Her spirit. It was a dying flame. She’d been through so much. He could feel it through the talisman.

  She felt cold and lonely inside. Hopeless. She didn’t want to move or think. So he focused on a small flame of hope inside her, nursing it, growing it. Nothing external. All from within. She wanted to escape, so he encouraged that. She dreamed of traveling, so he nursed that urge. She longed for freedom, and he strengthened that determination. Slowly but surely, her crying stopped.

  “Fine,” Mi Fei said, wiping away her tears. “Let’s go.”

  Huxian grinned. “One escape coming right up,” he said. He began summoning a portal to the next location, where they’d all be gathering. Somewhere hidden far away from the city.

  Hey, tough guy, Xiao Bai said. The next time you try manipulating my girl, you’d better talk to me first. Otherwise I’ll rip off your tails and leave you limping around for a year.

  Huxian gulped. It wasn’t all the fighting and the portals that had been the riskiest part of this plan, but Xiao Bai’s reaction to his tampering. Mental manipulation was frowned upon. Especially for a guardian demon like Xiao Bai, who only had one demon mission: protect her charge. No matter what. No matter where.

  Yeah, well, desperate times, Huxian sent. I’ll make it up for it later. I promise. Then he wracked his brain thinking about how he’d accomplish that. I’ll tell you what, if you forgive me, I’ll send you guys anywhere you like. Anywhere in the kingdom.

  Anywhere? Xiao Bai asked. And how exactly are you going to do that?

  Well, that depended a lot on the last and most important part of the plan: Cha Ming killing Prefecture Lord Burning Lake. He really hoped that part of the plan succeeded. He’d never died before, to his knowledge, and he wasn’t keen on trying.

  A blast of seven-colored fire erupted then. Several, in fact, from many unoccupied and very valuable buildings in the complex. His clones teleported Bifang all around the estate, torching everything they could. By the time she was gone, it was over. Everyone else had escaped. As to where? No one knew.

  They’d vanished without a trace.

  Chapter 38: Claddings of Light

  An hour wasn’t nearly enough to recover, but Cha Ming scrambled for every drop of qi he could. He pillaged the restroom’s mana-recovery formation while using a medicinal pill he bought from the arena on credit to heal the damage to his soul. As for his divinity, it had already recovered. It was his vitality that was the problem.

  He ate the food they provided, doing his best to convert it into nourishment for his internal world. Then he waited, sitting cross-legged, completely oblivious to the world around him. He’d underestimated Dripping Blade, and for that, he’d suffered. It had been silly of him to think that the Daoist would be a pushover. Still, he was fortunate in that he hadn’t shown most of his techniques, and he hadn’t shown the last stage of Thirty-Six Heavenly Transformations.

  He went over their battle, piecing together insights that would make the next fight easier. Especially the teleportation aspect to fighting at this level. It was only Cha Ming’s heightened intuition that tipped him off moments before a dagger pierced toward his back. He dodged the blurring black figure and back-pedaled, then, seeing a silver glint, he summoned a Temple Sand Clone to block it with his body. The clone sizzled and crumbled as the assassin flickered beside Cha Ming, soul burning, second dagger in hand.

  The assassin swung
with the deadly dagger, which Cha Ming avoided on instinct, not daring to directly block it. He could easily defeat this opponent, but the poison wouldn’t be easy to deal with.

  Fortunately, he didn’t have to. A figure appeared in the room. The assassin charged one last time, and Captain Xing struck it down with a powerful palm. He then walked over to the cloaked figure and pulled back its hood, revealing none other than Dripping Blade’s widow. Black veins protruded from her neck, likely from the backlash of whatever poisonous medication she’d taken.

  “It seems I was right to keep an eye on you,” Captain Xing said.

  “She probably expected you to stay away from this place,” Cha Ming said. “People might think you were biased if you stuck around.”

  “With the heavy oath I swore, I doubt anyone would think so,” Captain Xing said. “She was just desperate and at her wits’ end. Regardless, she’s only one of the reasons why I’m here. Talk to me, Clear Sky. What are you trying to accomplish? Why is there a small army of demons just outside the city?”

  “I promise you, they won’t attack the prefecture,” Cha Ming said. “They just caused trouble for a clan that gave them just cause.”

  “Fine,” Captain Xing said. “I’ll buy that. It involves a girl, doesn’t it?”

  Cha Ming smiled. “Yes, it does.” Mi Fei was safe now. Huxian had assured him of that. Now all he had to was defeat a prefecture lord, and everything else would fall into place. He could see causality’s strings tightening and reshaping themselves, all leading in one direction. “Tell me, Captain Xing. Why did they attack the Star-Eye Clan? Why didn’t they try to steal their land like they did the Clockwork Clan and like they were doing with the Iridescent Clan?”

  Captain Xing shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  “I think you know,” Cha Ming insisted. “They’re the key to all this. All strings pull in their direction.”

  Captain Xing nodded slowly. “Legends say that each of the five founding demon clans had an obligation. The Inkwell Clan was to defend the world itself, the Clockwork Clan was to protect their cities and settlements. The Runebound Clan’s duty was to preserve knowledge, and the Iridescent Clan’s was to accommodate and negotiate.”

  “And the Star-Eye Clan?” Cha Ming asked.

  “The Star-Eye Clan’s role was to connect,” Captain Xing said. “To link up all the demon settlements in the plane. As a result, they are the least mobile of the clans, save perhaps the Runebound Clan. They would never leave their homes. The Clockwork Clan and the Iridescent Clan could move around between the different cities. As for the Inkwell Clan—they were the rulers. The entire plane was their home. Or so everyone thought, until one day, their line ended.”

  “So you’re saying the Star-Eye Clan can’t run?” Cha Ming asked.

  “I didn’t say that,” Captain Xing said. “But their responsibility is heavy. When all else fails, it falls to them to find a way out.”

  Cha Ming nodded. “I see. Everything makes sense now.”

  “You’re running,” Captain Xing said. “Where will you go?”

  “Far away,” Cha Ming said.

  “And your oath?” Captain Xing asked.

  “Fulfilled when it can be,” Cha Ming said. “You know the contract we signed as well as I do.”

  “I just wanted to remind you,” Captain Xing said. “There are some who have ignored their oaths and contract to the Crimson Lotus Empire. Things didn’t end well for them.”

  “Relax, I’ll remember,” Cha Ming said. “Now leave me be. Every second matters.”

  “As you wish,” Captain Xing said, leaving Cha Ming to his recovery.

  The crowd jeered as Cha Ming entered the arena, pitting their will against his, the challenger. He would lose, and their champion, Lord Burning Lake, would win. Lord Dripping Blade had been an outsider, and they hadn’t cared much for him. This was winner take all, and no one wanted the prefecture to come under his control, given his strong connections to demons.

  Lord Burning Lake was already there, wearing deep-red robes embroidered with protective runes. His arms were bare and tattooed. Though he was strong, he didn’t wield a blade like Dripping Blade did. Instead, he used a spear. It was made of a red-and-gold material that gleamed in the sunlight.

  “Heavy spear,” Cha Ming said, seeing the way the man’s weight shifted, and the way the ground sank beneath his feet. He was a Dao God, a much stronger one than he was.

  “You like cutting things close, Clear Sky,” Lord Burning Lake said softly. “One might think you have a death wish.”

  “I’m here on time, and that’s what matters,” Cha Ming said. “Congratulations. Your pawn managed to uncover my trump card.”

  “I’m sure you have more of them,” Lord Burning Lake said. “It’s too bad for you that it won’t mean anything against me. I’m stronger than you are. Faster. More cunning.”

  “We’ll see,” Cha Ming said. A few more seconds passed before Captain Xing, right at the appointed time, declared their break at an end.

  “Both duelists have rested for the agreed-upon amount of time,” Captain Xing said. “Both are ready in the arena. Let the second duel commence!” He flashed away just in time to avoid Burning Lake, who immediately rushed at Cha Ming with a thrust of his spear. Cha Ming used the first stage of Thirty-Six Heavenly Transformations, Clockwork Boots of the Golden Dragon, and Crown of the Starry Sky in tandem to dodge. He barely had time to activate his assembly domain before the spear changed directions at the last minute and smashed sideways toward where Cha Ming had dodged.

  Cha Ming blocked the sideswipe with the Clear Sky Staff. How powerful could a redirected attack be? Very powerful, apparently. His bones cracked and his muscles tore as he took on the mid-grade Dao God’s strike head on. He tried to teleport away, but a much stronger and more refined spatial prison trapped him. He had no choice but to cancel his creation domain and use the power of his dismantling domain to break the spatial lock. The moment he did so, however, Burning Lake charged. A frontal battle was to his advantage. He’d been clever to use the previous battle to draw out Cha Ming’s abilities.

  Cha Ming retreated, one hard step after another. Burning Lake scored cut after cut, patiently laying on smaller wounds that would eventually bleed him dry.

  You aren’t going to last very long if you keep at it this way, Sun Wukong coached. Do it before it’s too late.

  Cha Ming clenched his teeth and broke through his limit again, summoning his second set of wings. His power soared, and suddenly, he was a match for Lord Burning Lake in a head-to-head battle. They exchanged a few blows, with Cha Ming landing a few hits of his own. He crushed bones just as Burning Lake crushed his. This wasn’t a battle of Daoists but a battle of Dao Gods. To win, you had to kill your opponent more than a single time.

  Cha Ming’s destruction-laden staff cleaved through Burning Lake’s arm. He used the opening to cut the prefecture lord in half. Instead of immediately healing, Lord Burning Lake turned into vapor, re-forming himself a short distance away before hopping back into the fray. Not in the same way as Cha Ming did with Seventy-Two Transformations but using another divine ability Cha Ming had never heard of.

  They fought again, spear against staff, and this time it was Cha Ming who suffered in the exchange. He took a spear to the face, but instead of regenerating to a vulnerable position, he took a leaf from Burning Lake’s book and crumbled into a pile of sand, which, being the cautious man that he was, Burning Lake avoided.

  “I knew you’d have another card up your sleeve,” Burning Lake said. “Impressive. Though it seems you can’t use this limit break for very long.”

  “It’ll last long enough for me to win,” Cha Ming said.

  “Perhaps,” Burning Lake said.

  “Aren’t you going to use yours?” Cha Ming asked.

  “I’m afraid I don’t have one,” Burning Lake replied. “But don’t worry, I have other things. Have you ever wondered why they call me Burning Lake?”


  “Many times,” Cha Ming answered. “The historical records remain sketchy on it.”

  “I haven’t used the ability for over a century, and I did spend much money to erase all mentions,” Burning Lake said. “Now, after all this time, everyone will experience my strength yet again and remember why I remain undefeated.”

  The prefecture lord’s body melted. Water oozed out from where he disappeared, quickly covering the entire arena floor. Where the water traveled, the arena caught fire. The flames weren’t particularly threatening, and standing on them was no issue. However, the scale was unlike anything Cha Ming had expected.

  “You are a burning lake?” Cha Ming said incredulously.

  Yes, Lord Burning Lake replied. This is my path. The path of the Burning Lake. He re-formed in front of Cha Ming, holding the same burning spear. I don’t have a limit break. The burning lake makes me a half step stronger. But good luck killing me for good. My vitality stores are deep and will outlast any damage you can accomplish.

  He charged, and this time, he attacked with wild abandon, not bothering to defend. Cha Ming cut the man down almost immediately, but his expression turned ugly when the prefecture lord regenerated almost immediately. Creating it had only drawn a small portion of the burning lake.

  Just how deep are his energy reserves? He cursed that train of thought as another five copies of Burning Lake appeared, each one wielding a blue-and-red spear of bone. Cha Ming responded by summoning the Temple Sand Clones he’d optimized with the Concept of Assembly. There were five of them, and they fought the prefecture lord’s clones, but unfortunately, despite having strong bodies, they could only use qi. It wasn’t long before Cha Ming had to replace them.

  “You see, Clear Sky, you have strong burst power, but my advantage is staying power,” Lord Burning Lake said. “I don’t need to win. I just need to wait you out. Tell me, Clear Sky, how will you manage to exhaust me in what little time you have left?” He didn’t give Cha Ming time to answer before he charged ahead, spear in hand, scoring a quick strike to Cha Ming’s elbow.