“You know she didn’t want to forget you,” Sun Wukong said. “You didn’t have to go through with this so thoroughly.”
Cha Ming’s eyes reddened, and a single tear fell. “I know that, you fool. But just like she didn’t want any harm to come to me because she knew too much, I didn’t want her to get caught up either. This way, she’s just a meaningless pawn in a game of cat and mouse. Not even worth pursuing.”
“Harsh, but true,” Sun Wukong said. “Are you sure you trust that woman, though? Will she treat her right?”
“She will,” Cha Ming said. Sun Wukong didn’t probe any further.
Cha Ming spent the rest of the afternoon tidying up the forge he’d spent six months in. He looked to the various benches filled with smiths that had become a part of his imaginary life. Would they ever meet again? Only time would tell, but he found it unlikely. If everything went according to plan, he’d disappear from the South in less than a year. The contract brand on his forearm was of little consequence.
“So what next?” Sun Wukong asked. They’d finished all the tidying up in the shop. Everything was ready for the smith they’d sold it to.
“Next?” Cha Ming asked. “Next, we make a bit of noise.”
They made their way to the commercial district under cover of darkness. There, a young lady had already taken up residence in the medium-sized shop and would start work the next day. Cha Ming ignored the young lady and proceeded to the office, where a middle-aged woman was reviewing sales contracts. He opened the windows with his transcendent force and flew inside.
“Who’s there?” the woman said. “Guards!” A few tense moments passed, and no one answered her call.
“Don’t worry,” Cha Ming said, not moving from the window. “I won’t stay long.” The woman tried to stand, but Cha Ming pressed her down using raw transcendent force. “You hired a young girl today.” It wasn’t a question.
The woman nodded but swallowed. “Her circumstances are special,” the woman said. “But if your lordship requires her, I’ll transfer her contract immediately.”
Cha Ming’s eyes narrowed. He summoned his qi and every ounce of fleshly body power he could muster. He summoned the might of his transcendent soul and pressed against her. The woman wasn’t a strong cultivator, but neither was she weak. But despite being a peak-foundation-establishment cultivator, she could only resist with all her might under the pressure. The slightest lapse would result in her destruction, body and soul.
“You misunderstood me,” Cha Ming said. “That girl. You’re to make sure she stays safe. Don’t coddle her, and don’t make things easy for her, but if I ever hear you’ve tried to give her away or sell her employment contract without her consent, if I ever hear she was mistreated, things won’t end well for you. Do you understand?”
The woman swallowed and nodded her head. Her body was drenched in sweat from head to toe. “Might I ask what she is to you, my lord?” she asked.
“No, you may not,” Cha Ming said. He then jumped out the window and closed it before flying off. After traveling a short distance, he walked to one of the many city gates and signed out of the city. He wasn’t sure how things would go for Mo Ling, but he was certain of two things: First, the woman, unless suicidal, would not dare test him. Second, she would never dare guess that the frightening man who’d threatened her was Pai Xiao, the kind and easygoing smith from Liaoning City.
Interlude: Threat
Boom. Boom.
Shivers ran down Feng Ming’s spine as he heard the dull, almost imperceptible pounding just outside Westvale Fortress.
Boom. Boom.
Such a sound shouldn’t be possible. In Feng Ming’s mind, anything strong enough to reverberate throughout the fortress ought to make crashing noises or cutting sounds. What he heard now sounded like a bundle of wet noodles crashing against a large gong.
Boom. Boom.
Something about it seemed wrong, almost unholy. He grabbed the Magma God’s Spear and flew through the corridors, rounding several corners before entering the control room. There, several generals were flipping through screens and assessing the situation. The former Sea God Emperor, Gong Xuandi, was already waiting for him.
It looks like I’m not the only one worried, Feng Ming thought, noticing his crossed arms and serious expression.
Boom. Boom.
“Custodian, what’s happening out there?” Feng Ming asked.
“I don’t know,” a voice answered as a middle-aged hologram of a man appeared before them. “Whatever it is, it’s not good for our energy reserves.” He pointed to the wall. The runes there had dimmed and grew dimmer with each sound.
Boom. Boom.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Feng Ming asked. “Bring up the battle map.”
“As you command,” the custodian said. He waved his hand, and two images appeared before Feng Ming and Gong Xuandi. The first image was a map of the wall. Several allied blips could be seen all along the fortress, and many blips representing demons and their enemies, the fiends, were roaming around the mountains. Save for an odd empty area in a valley, everything was as it should be. Except…
“The area right beside the fortress,” Feng Ming said. “What is it?”
Boom. Boom.
There was nothing there on the map, not even their own symbols. “Like I said, I don’t know,” the custodian replied, clearly irritated.
“Strange,” Feng Ming said. “What about a three-dimensional view of what’s happening?” The image changed into that of a bird’s-eye view of the wall. He adjusted the view, then zoomed in. To his surprise, he saw nothing. The image of the wall stopped just before and just after the fortress, leaving a gaping nothingness where he and Gong Xuandi stood. “What in the blazes is happening?”
Boom. Boom.
“Unknown,” the custodian said. “This servant suggests you investigate personally.” These last words were not heard, as Feng Ming and Gong Xuandi had already left. The black-caped, black-armored Feng Ming held a spear that resembled a piece of molten metal in his right hand. His face, though younger than most of his men, was stony and his eyes hardened with many battles.
Gong Xuandi wore the same black armor he did, though instead of a spear, he wielded a golden trident. Though he’d lost the Sea God’s Crown, the white-haired man was still a half-step blood-awakening cultivator. His toned body was covered in blue-gold runes, and the air around him seemed thick and viscous. No one in the Song Kingdom, not even Feng Ming, was stronger than he was. Save the transcendents, of course.
“I reviewed our ancestral teachings but haven’t found anything that matches what we’re experiencing,” Gong Xuandi said. “Whatever it is, it can either obscure or destroy karma, or it can shield itself from the wall’s sensors.”
Boom. Boom.
“A difficult feat, given that the wall is a transcendent artifact,” Feng Ming muttered. “Could it be one of the monarchs on the Ling Nan Demon Ranking?”
“Unlikely,” Gong Xuandi said. “Though some of them are stronger than I am, none of them specialize in subterfuge. If one of them acted against the wall, you’d feel more than this constant dull thumping. They’d tear gouges in the rocks that would take at least a few seconds to repair.”
Boom. Boom.
“Great,” Feng Ming said. “I find that both reassuring and unnerving.”
“I, for one,” Gong Xuandi said, “prefer a known powerful enemy to an unknown weaker one.” Despite his worrisome words, his expression remained stoic and unchanged. The ex-Sea God Emperor had been this way since he’d left with Feng Ming, no matter how much he, the chief marshal, tried to get him to relax.
Boom. Boom.
“Agreed,” Feng Ming said. The hallway they were in opened into an outdoor training square, where many confused men were busy putting away training swords and spears and drawing their real weapons. Feng Ming and Gong Xuandi ignored them and flew above the wall. They finally saw the perpetrator: a man-shaped shadow covered in horn
like protrusions. It was busy beating away at the wall with a bare fist while the wall’s defenders looked on in confusion. They hadn’t even needed to summon the wall’s defensive shields, as the creature’s blows were unbelievably weak.
“What the hell are you guys doing just looking at it?” Feng Ming yelled. “Kill it!”
The troops, who were originally wondering whether they should use their energy-intensive weapons for such a weak creature, buzzed into action. The wall’s formations activated, summoning bladed weapons that slashed at the creature. They cut into its arms, legs, and torso. To everyone’s surprise, the blows completely decapitated the creature. It fell into a useless lump at the base of the wall.
“Finally.”
“I wouldn’t celebrate too quickly,” Gong Xuandi said.
Feng Ming nodded. They looked at the pile of severed limbs, which soon began shaking. Then, they shot into the air and reassembled. Within three breaths’ time, the creature was back in action.
Boom. Boom.
The men swiped again. This time, however, the severed limbs didn’t fall off. Rather, they merged back together, and the creature continued pounding. They tried a few more times, but each time, the creature reassembled even faster.
“It’s not working,” a red-caped colonel said, floating up beside them. Westvale’s soldiers hadn’t given up with their initial failure. Like any disciplined army, they continued executing their standing orders without fail.
“Use the energy cannons,” Feng Ming said. “If it can’t be cut, perhaps it can be blown to pieces.”
“As you command,” the colonel said. “Prepare the energy cannons!” Several ports opened on the wall, revealing golden metal barrels that concentrated spiritual energy from the wall’s energy reserves. “Ready when you are,” the colonel said, standing by with spear at the ready.
“Fire!” Feng Ming called out.
The cannons pulsed. Large balls of energy that could annihilate even a middle-core-formation cultivator shot into the creature. Several holes appeared on its massive black body.
Did we injure it? he thought. For several seconds, it only stood there, waiting for heavens knew what.
“Hold,” Feng Ming said as the soldiers were preparing to fire a second round. Endless moments passed as they waited for what they knew in their hearts was inevitable. Slowly, at first, the holes began closing. Then, the healing intensified, and the holes grew back. The creature, who’d seemingly suffered a terrible injury, began whaling on the wall once more.
Boom. Boom.
To most of the men on the wall, the sound seemed the same as before. Feng Ming and Gong Xuandi, however, knew better. The sound was different. Somehow, despite having been shot by the cannons, it had grown stronger.
“I think I know what this is,” Gong Xuandi whispered. “Though I pray to the Sea God up above that I’m wrong.”
Boom. Boom.
“What is it?” Feng Ming asked. Anything that frightened Gong Xuandi was great cause for concern. To him, even the Southern Invasion was just an everyday occurrence not worthy of mention.
“It’s a Taotie,” Gong Xuandi said, reluctantly. “If I’m not mistaken, it’s the same Taotie the North and South allied to suppress ten thousand years ago. The Sea God Emperor ten generations my senior also joined them to seal it away. By his estimates, the seal should have lasted a million years before needing to be renewed.
“Okay,” Feng Ming said. “It’s been sealed once, so it should be doable. How do we kill it?”
Gong Xuandi looked at him strangely. “We don’t. We can’t.”
Boom. Boom.
“Pardon?” Feng Ming said. If they’d done it before, why couldn’t they do it now?
“A Taotie is the power of devouring incarnate,” Gong Xuandi said. “Though this one is just an infant, the laws it represents surpasses anything a mortal realm could ever muster. A god could kill it, perhaps, but by doing so, it would destroy the plane. That’s why they sealed it off. The idea was to perpetually keep it away from sustenance. Whenever the seal faded, the Sea God Realm would send another seal to replace the old one.
“Great,” Feng Ming said. “How do we place an order?” A million years early shouldn’t be a big deal, should it?
Boom. Boom.
“I can send a message to the Sea God’s Herald,” Gong Xuandi said reluctantly. “And I suggest you do the same with your Alabaster Group. Meanwhile, we need to get it away from your wall. We need to punish it, to cost it what it lacks most: time. When it realizes it’s wasting its time, it will go away and find another target.”
“All right,” Feng Ming said. “Colonel, get all men to assume defensive positions. I want everyone to divert energy to healing the wall. I don’t want any shields active, and I don’t want any weapons used on the creature.”
The colonel nodded and moved to carry out his orders. He came back a few moments later. “Sir, how will we repel it without any weapons?” the colonel asked.
Feng Ming grinned. He hefted his spear, which he’d been carrying on his shoulder, and assumed a battle position. “We are the weapons.” Then, he darted toward the creature. Gong Xuandi, who was carrying a large golden trident, grunted and followed him. They flew at the creature as a pair. Feng Ming’s Magma God’s Spear glowed red as the Gong Xuandi’s trident glowed blue. They stabbed into the creature of darkness, quickly pulling away from the gaping holes they left in the creature’s body. Dark devouring force rushed up to grab the weapons, but ultimately, they were too slow.
Slash. Stab. Kick.
“Don’t use any energy attacks,” Gong Xuandi warned as he hacked away at the monster. “Energy attacks are too easy to absorb. It’s better to use physical attacks to cut and disperse the creature. Regeneration costs the Taotie energy.”
“What if we just keep hacking away at it?” Feng Ming asked as he lopped off one of its many dark horns. The sharp protrusion wriggled on the floor; it dissociated before rejoining the main body and regrowing near its head. “We could constantly attack it and deplete its energy reserves.”
“Regeneration costs it less energy than it absorbs from the air,” Gong Xuandi scoffed as he kicked the creature in the chest, forcing it away from the wall. “We’re limiting its energy intake by wasting its time, not by expending it.”
Heavens, Feng Ming thought. I hope it’s not intelligent. The two of them were barely keeping it at bay, and if it continued doing what it was doing, it could tie up two of the North’s most powerful fighters indefinitely. They could only hope that self-interest drove it away.
Their battle continued, and the Taotie continued bravely advancing, only to be rebuffed every time. Occasionally, the creature launched powerful, energy-consuming attacks on the two men, who rebuffed them with little effort. Only after seven hours did it finally stop.
They looked at the creature. The creature looked back. Time stood still for a few minutes as the creature deliberated its next course of action. Then, finally, it turned. Its slow, lumbering body turned back toward the mountains where it had come. Every step it took withered trees and drained ponds. Its footprints left behind shattered desolation and lifeless dust.
“I sent a message to the Sea God’s Herald through my core-transmission jade,” Gong Xuandi said.
Feng Ming nodded and did the same to Lu Tianhao in the Quicksilver Kingdom. Then, looking toward the west, he frowned.
“I’m concerned,” Feng Ming said, looking toward the demonic mountain.
“About what?” Gong Xuandi asked.
“That it will simply wander through demonic lands and devour everything in its path. Then, once it’s strong enough, it will come back to our wall.”
“A very real concern,” Gong Xuandi admitted. “What do you command?”
Right, Feng Ming thought. He’s basically my indentured servant at this point. He won’t do anything unless I tell him to.
“Let’s chase him,” Feng Ming said. “Let’s harass him when he approaches anything
too rich in energy. Then we’ll herd him toward the South. Once he gets there, it’ll be their problem to deal with.”
Gong Xuandi raised an eyebrow. “You want to put the fate of the plane in the hands of devils and evil spirits?”
Feng Ming shrugged. “They want this plane just as much as we do. They’re not about to let it fall. Maybe we’ll force their transcendents to act against it too. Or do you have any better ideas?”
Gong Xuandi shook his head. “Colonel, we’ll be gone for a while. Call Songjing and tell them to send over one of the new marshals to defend Westvale Fortress.”
“Sir,” the colonel said. “I’d appreciate it if you were the one to send the message.”
Right, Feng Ming realized. Song Guo, Feng Ming’s wife, would kill him if she found out he was going on another adventure. Especially just before their anniversary. “Gong Xuandi, you relay the message.” The disgraced Sea God Emperor grimaced, but as Feng Ming expected, he flew off toward Songjing.
Someone has to be the messenger, Feng Ming thought. He could hardly think of a better man to take the heat for terrible news than Gong Xuandi.
Feng Ming pursued the beast alone for a few hours before finally being rejoined by the old Sea God Emperor. The man looked worn and beaten down.
“I won’t be doing that again,” Gong Xuandi said. “Regardless of my requirement to serve you.”
“Fair enough,” Feng Ming said, sighing. Once was already enough. “Let’s keep following it.”
It didn’t take long for them to find it. Where it passed, death followed.
Chapter 14: Shadow Fate Investiture
Wang Jun walked through the corridors of the Wang family mansion, admiring the impressive décor in the main hallway. Twenty feet wide with a twenty-foot ceiling on the first floor, the spacious home featured many famous art pieces like sculptures, calligraphy, and paintings. It was night out, and the residence was alight with candles and chandeliers. They cast ominous shadows beneath their dim lights.
Shattered Lands: Book 8 of Painting the Mists Page 18