A Thousand Li: The Second Sect: Book 5 Of A Xianxia Cultivation Epic

by Tao Wong

  Up and up, Wu Ying rose. Fifth, sixth, seventh floor. On the fifth floor, he spotted a few survivors doing their best to save the manuals from the fires that threatened to consume the precious works. Water and wind cultivators worked in tandem to put out flames while earth and metal cultivators rushed into the fires, pulling out scrolls and manuals.

  A part of Wu Ying wondered why they weren’t joining the fight. Another part of him noted the way they moved, the injuries they bore. Perhaps they had already tried and failed. And now did what they could.

  The thought hardened Wu Ying’s resolve and he moved faster, climbing upward.

  Finally, as he ascended to the ninth floor, he heard the clash of weapons, the screams of battle. Clutching his Saint-level sword with his only good hand, Wu Ying readied himself. For the battle ahead of him sounded fierce and desperate.

  ***

  Chaos greeted Wu Ying as he ascended the floor. Smoke swirled, trapped within the still unbroken walls of the library floor. In the distance, Wu Ying caught glimpses of the formation keeping the tenth floor protected, shimmering and untouched as yet. Heat pressed upon Wu Ying’s senses, evaporating the sweat and blood on his skin, drying out his mouth. As he closed, flashes of released chi and sword intent spun through the smoke, parting them before crashing into stone pillars, bookcases, and manuals with as much care as an oxen rushing toward its feed.

  Rather than charge forward heedlessly, Wu Ying sneaked closer. He clamped down on his aura, pushing it down as far as he could. He might be out of practice at keeping it contained on an unconscious basis, but his studies still allowed him to control it actively. And with the sheer amount of swirling, chaotic energy in the environment, it would be nearly impossible to pick out details about his aura anyway. Not unless one was extremely talented.

  Sliding behind a stone pillar, Wu Ying peeked around it, his injured arm cradled to his body. It throbbed in time to the swirl and pulse of chi. The clash of weapons and shouted orders permeated the space, adding to the chaos of the battle.

  Wu Ying spotted the three sides that made up the heat of the battle.

  Closest to him were familiar faces. A pair of library attendants and Yu Kun were joined by the newly arrived Xiang Wen and Bai Gui, fighting a group of five dark sect cultivators. One of which looked quite familiar with his bloody mace. Like the opponents Wu Ying had fought, they were all burning their cultivation base and lifeblood, forcing Yu Kun and the others into a bloody stalemate. It was only because they were at the end of their burn that Yu Kun and the others were even able to withstand the attacks. Even so, strewn across the floors were multiple corpses of other library attendants and a few dark-clad, masked dark sect cultivators.

  On the other side was the other battle. Pushed up against the edge of the stairs, guarding the formation itself, stood Xiang Wen’s sect members Shi Rong and Jia Yi, along with a cluster of library attendants. They moved in formation, working together to protect the cross-legged Elder seated at the bottom of the stairs, cultivating and healing.

  Elder Hsu Er, the old library formation Elder, looked much the worse for wear. Blood pooled around his mouth and a chest wound that Wu Ying could see throbbed with each breath. Worse, black tendrils could be seen reaching out from the open wound, spreading through his body. Poison or a venom of some form, forcing the Elder to pay attention to that rather than the fight. It was clear from the edges of the bone sprouting from his chest that the attack had come from behind, catching the cultivator by surprise.

  As for what Shi Rong and the group of librarians faced, it was only a single cultivator. Yet the sheer pressure of his aura dwarfed everyone else’s and the attack he launched with his bare hands pummeled the protective formation the group had conjured. Each time he swung, another of the group took the lead of meeting the attack, only to fall back afterward, coughing blood and shaking bloodied arms. Energy Storage cultivators had no chance against a Core cultivator, even if they were working together to combine their meager strength.

  Wu Ying took that all in with a sweep of his gaze, grasping the flow of the battle. It seemed that the defenders had managed to stymie the attackers here, but at the high cost of bodies and the Elder. Even now, Wu Ying watched as another librarian collapsed when the dark sect Core cultivator swung his arm forward, the chi in his punch forming a snapping turtle that crushed the poor librarian. Before the Core cultivator could advance, Shi Rong stepped in, polearm held before him and chi swirling on its tip.

  Normally, Wu Ying would rush in. Throw himself into the fray with all the courage and bluster of an overconfident teenager. Yet he was injured, one arm crippled, his breathing hitched, his legs rubbery. He stood no chance in a one-on-one fight. Not again. Even his friends like Yu Kun looked the worse for wear, having fallen back now that help was here.

  No, rushing in was not the right choice. He would have to choose a time and place to attack. Resolving to do something, but carefully, Wu Ying crept along the edge of the fight.

  First, he had to avoid the battle between Xiang Wen and the other dark sect cultivators.

  The linchpin of this battle was the Core cultivator. He had to be taken down. Or at least injured sufficiently that the others could take him down. Wu Ying sensed the man’s aura, and while the Core cultivator might have exhausted some of his reserves, he was in no danger of running out.

  No.

  Dealing with the Core cultivator was an active action, not a passive wearing down of his reserves. Yet Wu Ying could sense that for all his attention spent on those ahead of him, the Core cultivator still paid attention to his surroundings. He would not be easily surprised. The Core cultivator was too wily for that.

  Finding his way to another stone pillar, one that placed him at an angle to both the Core cultivator and the other cultivators, Wu Ying crouched and steadied his breathing. He held his aura close, only allowing a trickle of the unaspected chi that flowed around him into his body, refilling it passively. Sword held by his side, he waited, his breathing slow and steady, eyes narrowed.

  When the time came, he would have to act with barely any warning. When—or if—the opportunity came to tip the scales of this battle, it would be in a split second.

  Sadly, Wu Ying had an inkling of the when. And how.

  It was time for some others to play bait.

  ***

  Yu Kun fired a crossbow, the bolt missing his target by inches as they swayed aside. The dodge was expected however, and a moment later, Xiang Wen removed her sword from his throat, leaving the dying dark sect cultivator to slump to the floor. She turned, eyes glowing as she stalked forward, targeting the remaining three opponents. They skittered back and then stopped, firming their lines even as Bai Gui snarled, his pair of hatchets darting forward to smash at their defenses.

  On the other side of the fight, the inner sect cultivators of the Double Soul, Double Body Sect were doing significantly worse. Only Shi Rong and a handful of the cultivators were still standing, the others slumped to the floor, knocked out of the formation, some unconscious or bleeding from internal wounds, but most husbanding their energy. Elder Hsu continued to sit in silence, struggling to contain the poison that threatened his life, having made no sustainable gains in the last few minutes of battle.

  The enemy Core cultivator was winning. Yet he could not handle both a front and rear assault at the same time. Once those in the rear broke through, he would have to give up on his assault and face the entire group at once.

  Rather than risk being assailed on both sides, the Core dark sect cultivator swung his fists faster. Each time, power warped, the image of the snapping turtle forming around his hand before flashing forward to impact the formation. Shi Rong had taken point once more, but even the powerful peak Energy Storage cultivator could not hold back the attacks. He held on for the first trio of blows, helping to shed the attacks and disperse it through the formation of joined cultivators.

  Only to fall at the fourth attack, blasted backward. Shi Rong deflected off the se
ated Elder’s aura, bounced off the formation, and fell bonelessly to the floor. At the same time, the other four cultivators still standing staggered or collapsed on the spot. Immediately, those resting cultivators of the Double Soul, Double Body Sect—including Jia Yi—rose to their feet to rebuild the formation.

  Too late.

  A swing of the enemy’s hand, first one way then the other, and sweeping arcs of energy threw the rising cultivators away with contemptuous ease. The dark sect cultivator grinned, his hair streaming behind him. Dark robes flapped in the rising winds of chi, a single footstep covering the gap between him and Elder Hsu. The Core cultivator’s hand rose, energy forming around it as he readied his strike. For a second, the Core cultivator from the dark sect had his attention fully focused on the seated Elder. Unlike with the others, the Core cultivator could not split his attention from Elder Hsu.

  For a second, as he readied his attack, the dark sect cultivator’s attention was entirely focused.

  And in that moment, Wu Ying struck.

  His body had already begun moving the moment the formation was broken. No time to think, no time to consider or balance the risk and reward. Chi coursed down Wu Ying’s Saint-level sword, wrapping the entire weapon in unaspected and wind chi. It shone brightly even as he launched himself forward.

  The Sword’s Truth—the most fundamental attack of the Long family technique. Refined by Wu Ying through countless hours of repetition, evolved via the many styles he had learnt and even the single strike he had faced, so many moons ago.

  Wu Ying’s single most deadly attack, all of it concentrated toward the tip of the weapon itself, reinforcing it. He plunged forward, crossing the tens of feet between himself and the Core cultivator’s back with barely a sound.

  Flashing past the battling Xiang Wen and the other dark sect cultivators, none of whom had expected his sudden appearance, Wu Ying’s body and blade were a single line, the edges of a chi formation streaming around him as his leaked chi took upon the aspects of the world and his deeper bloodline. His aura was a rough sketch of a sinuous line.

  His strike reached the dark sect Core opponent’s back, pierced the ends of his robes. Wu Ying felt the edges of the chi envelope that covered his weapon pierce skin, plunging into flesh.

  Then nothing.

  Moving faster than Wu Ying could see, his target had spun around. The Core-leveled enemy body twisted, dodging Wu Ying’s attack, his left hand flashing outward as it diverted chi into a defensive blow. Caught by the edges of the instinctive block, Wu Ying was thrown aside.

  He had failed to kill the enemy. Or even grievously injure him.

  Yet, through the flight, Wu Ying glimpsed his target’s end. The dark sect cultivator, having turned his back, never saw Elder Hsu open his eyes. Never saw the pair of pointed fingers that plunged upward, a single, focused piercing attack that tore through the dantian and shattered the dark sect enemy’s Core.

  The energy of the attack never left the dark sect elder’s body, rippling through it. His body arched as the man experienced a pain beyond anything he had ever felt before. Then he slumped, a smoking mess with burnt-out eyes and crisped innards.

  Wu Ying saw all this before the energy of the attack spun him around. The energy from being caught even by the edges of the Elder’s blow was too great for him. It shattered his bones, sent him flying through bookcases and bouncing off stone pillars.

  Only to land against the outer wall of the library, bleeding and limp like a child’s straw doll.

  Unconscious.

  Chapter 28

  Wu Ying woke to the feel of water sloshing around him, his body suspended in liquid. He tried to move, only to find that he could not twitch a single muscle below his head. Even the act of turning was lost to him. Eyes flashing open as streams of panic rushed through him, Wu Ying opened his mouth with a gasp before cursing himself internally for making noise. Who knew where he was?

  Understanding flooded in soon after, as he spotted the edge of the circular wooden bath he lay within and the sloshing, discolored medicinal water with its floating petals, herbs, and warm water. The room was familiar to Wu Ying, having spent more than one evening soaking within the medicinal baths of the sect. In fact, a slight inhalation allowed Wu Ying to smell a very familiar mixture in the bath.

  “Don’t move. Well, not that you can much, but don’t move the rest of your body. We froze your body so that you wouldn’t disrupt our work during the more delicate moments of the process.” The voice came from behind Wu Ying, only mildly familiar. In short order, he spotted Zhong Jing, the physician who was working on him, the same one who had looked over his body earlier. “You’re drawing in the medicinal herbs well but healing you at the same time has complicated matters. If you can, you should cultivate that body strengthening exercise you had for your bones. You shattered more than one, so it is a good time to practice.”

  “I can’t feel my body though,” Wu Ying said uncertainly. A tendril of thought reached outward, touching his dantian that pulsed and worked to draw in chi. That, at least, had not changed.

  “Again, I froze your senses. Otherwise you’d be thrashing a lot more.” Apparently irritated, the physician sniffed as he turned aside. “Now, I’ve got to check on others. Cultivate!”

  Receding footsteps indicated that Zhong Jing had left, leaving Wu Ying with nothing to do but float in the medicinal bath. He pondered what else might have happened, how he kept waking up in these baths, and perhaps, just perhaps, maybe taking Wan Yan’s advice.

  He thought about stepping away from such incidents. If nothing else, he could do with less time being injured and spending more time cultivating and growing in strength. He still did not have the strength to change his destiny, not like he wished.

  Thinking about it, what had happened to Wan Yan?

  ***

  “Escaped,” Tou He said when he finally came to visit Wu Ying days later.

  Or maybe weeks. It was hard to tell since the lighting in the bathing room was left low on purpose and Wu Ying often fell asleep mid-cultivation. There was little to do in the bath, and beyond being fed and forced to continue cultivating, there was little to help Wu Ying gauge the passing of time.

  “Really? You saw her?”

  “I did. You did too,” Tou He said. Wu Ying frowned, and his friend chuckled. “She was part of the group with the Core-level cultivator you fought.”

  “Wasn’t much of a fight,” Wu Ying grumbled. He still remembered thinking he had the other cultivator. He could still remember how his blade had sunk in, or the edge of his attack had at least. And then, the surprise when the man had moved out of the way and struck Wu Ying in the same motion.

  “I was trying to be nice.” Tou He’s eyes twinkled. “Anyway, in the midst of all the chaos after the Core cultivator fell, she managed to escape.”

  Tou He proceeded to describe the battle after Wu Ying had been knocked unconscious as it had been related to him. The last of the dark sect cultivators had launched a series of enchantments, causing flames to lick at the manuals and smoke to rise. In the midst of all that, Wan Yan had escaped.

  As for the battle over the water, it had ended with the death of two more Core cultivators on the enemy side and the death of a single Protector. More would have died if the current Patriarch from the Double Soul, Double Body Sect had not joined the fight, breaking his secluded cultivation.

  That, supposedly, was a greater tragedy than all the damage done to the tower. He had been, supposedly, close to ascending his next step on his cultivation journey as a Nascent Soul cultivator. Now, decades of work had been wasted.

  “And Yu Kun?” Wu Ying asked. He eyed his friend idly, happy to see that he was doing better. In fact, Tou He seemed to almost glow with energy, only favoring his left side mildly.

  “Doing well. His injuries have mostly healed, and he is busy helping with the reconstruction,” Tou He said. “Most of us have been, when we can. They are offering a generous amount of contribution points
to those of us who help. It will still be many months, if not years, before the tower is fixed, but it can be fixed.”

  “Good, very good. Just don’t strain yourself, will you?” After a second, Wu Ying murmured, “I’m sorry. Even when we’re here for your healing and cultivation, I seem to drag you into my business.”

  “Drag?” Tou He stared at Wu Ying then turned away.

  A moment later, Wu Ying let out a loud yelp as he splashed away from his friend, shaking off the ladleful of cold water his friend had dumped on him.

  “I am an adult. I know full well what I choose to do,” Tou He said. “More importantly, do you think I would stand aside and let the dark sect act without intervening myself?”

  Wu Ying winced, rubbing his damp hair. Thankfully, he was allowed to move around now that he was actively awake. In fact, he spent the evenings outside of the medicinal bath, allowing his skin to dry and allowing him to—gently—repeat the physical exercises from his body cultivation manual. Not that he had noticed a significant change in his body, but it was hard to track such changes between his injuries and his newly integrated understanding.

  “No. I guess not. But…”

  “Stop. I will not hear you say another thing. I have made my choice, as has Yu Kun and your Elder Sister and Master and, yes, yourself.” Tou He shook his head. “This is a dire storm, and all of us must act to mitigate its effects.”

  “There are safer ways to help,” Wu Ying offered. The final toll of the attack had yet to be accounted for, as bodies were still being pulled from rubble and the missing located. There were many who were just gone, their bodies having floated off downriver. Or more darkly, having joined the dark sect in their escape.

  “If I chose safe, then I would not be the cultivator I wish to be,” Tou He said. “Anyway, we all managed to make it out of this one without major injuries. Outside of you. And you don’t see me asking you to stop.”