That’d make this combat room two?
Chunhua and Na came to a stop not far ahead of him. Both women were breathing normally and didn’t appear to be winded in the least.
They were cultivators first. Even without access to the abilities that defined them, they were still in excellent physical shape, their bodies long nurtured by Qi.
Standing there, the three of them waited. Wondering what would happen next.
Ash could feel his heart pounding in his chest and worked to calm it. Utilizing the time they had right now to try and re-balance himself.
The flow of Qi coming to him through the chain dried up suddenly and then went dead. Signifying that the golem had either failed outright or was no longer something that could be considered a valid target.
Working quickly, Ash distanced himself from his Dao. Releasing it as his control faded without any whiplash to himself.
“Nothing… is happening,” Na murmured.
Looking around once more, Ash felt almost worse that nothing had changed.
I can deal with a problem. It’s much harder to deal with… nothing.
Grinding his teeth back and forth, Ash waited.
He stared at the walls.
His anxiety grew, folded over itself, and then exploded.
Except nothing happened. Nothing changed.
An empty room coated in glowing green jade on every surface.
And them.
“Do… do we look for an exit?” Chunhua asked. Her voice echoed a few times before trailing off.
“I mean, how would we even do that?” Ash asked. Frowning, he let the jade blade come to rest point first on the ground with a ping-like noise. “I had to practically rip the jade from the walls in the other room to see it.”
“We cannot remain here,” said Na, letting her hands fall to her sides.
Ash’s tribulation took her words as an invitation. Lashing out at him, it struck at his heart, making it beat oddly.
Wincing, Ash held his breath and tilted his head to one side.
Bleeding some of the pressure on his chest away with his Qi Sea, he let everything slide past him. Not bothering to counter the momentum of the push against him, just letting it flow over him.
It was gone as quickly as it’d come on.
But Ash didn’t get the feeling the tribulation had eased up at all.
“Yeah, can’t stay here,” Ash agreed and meant it. If he remained here, he’d likely be killed by the tribulation long before he perished of starvation or dehydration.
Reaching up with his free hand, he rubbed at his chest. He’d managed to dodge most of the feeling, but some of it lingered.
I have less time than I think. Don’t I?
Sighing, Ash tapped the jade blade against the ground with some force.
A sharp crackling noise caused him to look down.
The blade had sunk into the floor and started to shatter the jade itself.
Oh. That’s right. It went through the wall.
Huh. Alright… we’ll do that.
Lifting up the blade horizontally to his body Ash walked over to the wall. Then he began to drag it along the surface as he walked the perimeter of the room.
Behind him, the jade walls cracked, crumbled, and fell apart.
After he’d made a complete circuit and returned to the starting point, he turned and looked back at his work.
Every wall was a ruin.
Shattered, broken, and tumbling off even as he watched.
“I… I don’t think the sect leader will forgive us for ruining the Jade Vault,” Na murmured.
“He’s welcome to be angry,” Ash said without a care. “I’d rather him clean this up, than our corpses when they discover us later on.”
“That’s… yes. That’s a very good point,” Chunhua said then sighed. “I feel so helpless.”
“Master Sheng will care for us. I feel weakened, but not helpless,” declared Na moving toward the wall. “He won’t let harm befall us. He is too kind.”
Chunhua nodded briefly at that as she continued to inspect the walls.
“Is that our exit, then?” she asked, pointing toward an archway that was now partially revealed.
“I imagine so since… well… there’s no other door,” Ash replied.
While Chunhua and Ash had discussed the exit, Na had been busily sweeping jade into a spatial storage ring.
So their items still work. Just like mine.
Just… not abilities.
Chunhua met his eyes and then gave him a casual shrug of her shoulders. Realizing that she didn’t have any better idea about the jade than he did, they started walking toward the only visible exit.
Reaching it, they passed through the archway without another word between them. Na joined them once more and offered nothing as to the jade collection she’d just taken with her.
Once more, the three of them crossed a point where they entered an entirely new area.
Why the heck is everything separated like that?
They had entered into a new room. Smaller than the previous room, it was also extraordinarily different than the last two.
This one contained a number of tables, chairs, bookshelves, and even small altars to make offerings at.
Lined up in rows from one side of the room to the other and stretching back nearly halfway to the far wall, were stone plinths. Atop each plinth was a jade statue.
Human-looking, lifelike jade statues.
Fuck. They’re all going to attack us, aren’t they?
A large male jade statue near the front of the unmoving throng slowly turned its head toward Ash and the others.
Staring at them with unseeing jade eyes.
Thirty-Six
Standing there, the three disciples stared at the jade statue.
The statue stared back.
Seconds crept by.
Ash pretended to be a statue, while an actual jade statue gazed back.
In the absolute stillness, Ash could hear himself, Na, and Chunhua breathing and little else.
Finally turning its head back to its original position, the jade statue apparently decided that the three of them weren’t worth its time. It returned to its unliving state as if this were all just a figment of their imaginations.
“Did… that move?” Ash asked, after a small amount of time had passed.
“Yes. Yes, it did, Master Sheng,” Na murmured.
He hadn’t noticed it at first, but both Na and Chunhua had drifted closer to him. They were practically shoulder to shoulder with him now.
“What do we do?” Chunhua asked.
“I honestly wish I knew,” Ash admitted. “I really don’t know what to do with this. Any of this. I mean… do we move… do we hold still… do we… do we go backward?”
Neither Na nor Chunhua replied to that. Each woman stood there with their own thoughts. Just as Ash did.
This was clearly a situation that was beyond them and their collective abilities.
And that didn’t even take into account that Na and Chunhua were locked out of the majority of their strength.
“I think… these are jade golems made of the previous Jade Masters,” Na said after perhaps another thirty seconds had oozed by.
“And why would you think that?” Ash asked, his eyes still slowly drifting from statue to statue.
“Because… because I recognize one. I think,” Na said and slowly let herself relax out of her defensive posture. “And I don’t think we’ll have any problems with them. I think this is actually the true Jade Vault. Not what we were in previously, but right here. These golems are the treasure.”
Ash raised his eyebrows at that. He wasn’t sure how she had reached that conclusion, but he didn’t doubt her. Na was incredibly intelligent and insightful.
Shaking her head minutely, Na passed between two jade statues and moved deeper into the formation.
Chewing at his lip for a second, Ash contemplated what to do. Then he realized he didn’t have much
of a choice. Following Na wasn’t even a question.
Moving quickly, he passed between the jade statues and caught up to her.
“It… took me a little longer than it should have,” said Na softly. “But I hadn’t… haven’t… seen her in a while. A long while now.”
“Who?” Ash asked, glancing up at the lifelike jade statues he passed by. More than a few turned their heads to watch him walk by, but not all of them did.
To say it was unnerving was putting it lightly.
“My great-grandmother,” Na said, stopping in front of one particular jade statue. Staring up at its face, she seemed lost in her own world now.
Following Na’s gaze, Ash looked at the carved jade features. He couldn’t see a resemblance to Na but that didn’t really mean anything.
“I used to… hide in her garden,” Na murmured, her eyes searching that jade face. “She’d be painting and I’d watch her. I wasn’t supposed to be there. No one was supposed to disturb grandmother An.”
Watching the face, Ash saw no change there. There was no movement from the golem and it seemed almost as if it weren’t interested in anything.
“I don’t think all of them live,” Chunhua said from behind Ash. “Some are simply statues, some are golems. That or there’s something else going on here.”
Likely the latter.
I’d bet on… them simply choosing not to engage. Or being in a much deeper sleep.
Na apparently didn’t care that the statue hadn’t responded to her.
Getting down to her knees, Na placed her hands in her lap and then bowed her head to the statue.
It was both familial and respectful.
Frowning, Ash looked away from Na and instead turned his attention to the statues—or golems he supposed—directly around him.
Of them, a few were looking at his small group, but most were content to ignore them.
“Ashley, I’m not sure what we should be do—”
A deafening boom muted out anything else Chunhua had to say.
Dust, fragments of stone, and solidified Qi rushed in from the archway where they’d entered.
“It’s the masters!” Chunhua hissed, then got down in a low crouch and put herself behind a golem.
Growling, Ash ducked down behind a statue’s pedestal as well. Peering out between the booted feet toward the entryway.
Na had done the same, though she was hiding behind her great-grandmother’s likeness.
“We need to—” Na’s words died on her lips as the two masters practically appeared amongst them.
Both were men wearing long black coats, carrying swords, and with their faces covered. They had the look of people you would cross the city-block to stay away from, let alone the street.
The one in front of Ash stabbed down at him without a word or a second of hesitation.
Ripping at Spring Step, Ash scrambled to one side, practically rolling out of the way.
Smashing against the ground, the tip of the blade rebounded before the man quickly retracted the blade. There was no damage to the edge of the weapon that Ash could see and it clearly hadn’t broken.
Qi enchanted or made. This isn’t going to—
Another sword came flashing down for his life. This one was from the second man. Ash had barely gotten his feet to the floor before he activated another instance of Spring Step.
This time, he rolled backward with a great deal more force.
Bumping and rolling end over end, Ash felt like a bowling ball.
More so when he caught a bounce badly and careened off a heavy stone plinth. Only to get forced to the side to hit another, before finally smashing into a third and coming to a stop.
Groaning, Ash rose up to his feet as quickly as he could.
But it was already too late.
Both masters were dashing toward him, sword points leading the way.
Well, shit.
“Remember this moment!” screamed Na as she threw herself bodily into the two masters.
Even without her Qi-enhanced self and not using a technique, her body weight was more than enough to push one into the other. Knocking them off their footing.
One tripped over his own feet as the other slammed into a jade statue head first. He went down to the ground in a heap and laid there unmoving.
“Run, Ash!” yelled Na.
The one that she’d collided directly with recovered swiftly. Turning to face her, he lifted his blade up and drove it toward her.
Slamming his teeth together so he didn’t bite his tongue off, Ash pulled his entire Qi Sea into his Spring Step.
He wasn’t fast enough, though.
Spearing forward, the sword tip slid into Na.
Stopping a bare fraction of an inch inside of her, the blade came to a shuddering stop.
A jade hand clutched the middle of the blade.
Standing in front of Na was the jade golem that she’d knelt to before. The one she’d called her great-grandmother An.
There was an ominous creaking sound which heralded that bad things were about to happen. Like something was going to break.
There was a crackling, like stone shattering, followed by a high-pitched whine and ping noise.
Shattering and crumbling on both sides of where the jade hand held the sword, the blade itself had broken. In a single second, it’d become less than half its original length.
And was now without a working tip.
Before the master could respond to the situation, the jade golem swung around with its free hand. Smashing into the man’s masked jaw, it caused a disgusting crunching noise.
Spinning around until it seemed as if he were looking backward, the man’s head was now facing the wrong way.
Toppling to one side, the master twitched several times on the ground but made no other moves.
The jade golem jumped with a strange hopping motion and promptly landed on the second master’s head.
A red, steamy pulp of blood and gore splattered out in every direction under the green woman’s feet.
Turning, the jade golem slowly looked toward Na, who had a hand pressed to her stomach. Though the blade hadn’t gone too deeply into her, she’d still been wounded.
“Granny Ahnan?” Na asked in an almost dreamy way.
The corners of the jade golem’s mouth curled into a smile even as the creature tilted its head to one side. Then it nodded its head twice.
Reaching out a jade hand that’d just crushed what was likely a Qi-forged sword, the golem gently laid its hand on Na’s head.
Patting the crown of her head tenderly, the golem was clearly more than what it appeared to be.
Leaning its head down, the jade golem pressed its forehead to Na’s.
Ash swore he heard something spoken, but he couldn’t be sure. To his ear, it almost sounded like rocks briefly grinding together.
Standing upright, the golem moved back to its plinth and took up its original pose. Going instantly still once it had resumed its previous stance.
Na stepped over to the golem and then laid her head against its thigh. Closing her eyes, she stood there, one hand pressed to the wound.
“Ahnan said the exit is behind them. In the far wall,” Na murmured. “She told me the password, as well.”
Unable to respond to that, Ash could only nod his head. He wasn’t quite up to speed on everything that happened.
In fact, all he could see in his mind’s eye was Na shouting to remember this moment as she tried to sacrifice herself for his scant possibility of escaping.
He feared it would set a dangerous precedent.
***
Hours later, after tending to Na’s wound and looting the corpses of the two masters, the trio exited the vaults.
It’d been a long, winding climb up a great number of stairs, coupled with a number of rest breaks for Na to catch her breath.
The medicine she’d been fed was clearly helping her along, but it was only able to do so much for her without her Qi Sea being acti
ve.
All throughout the climb, they’d been without their Qi-backed powers. Between that and her injury, there was no possible way she’d get up the stairs without needing to rest often.
“I think we’ve reached the top. Almost done, Na,” Chunhua promised. The sorceress had taken it upon herself to help carry Na up the stairs after Ash had done so for the first half.
“Oh, thank the heavens,” Na grumbled. “I just want to sleep. I’m so tired. My Dantian aches. Everything needs to rest.”
“I know, almost there,” murmured Chunhua.
Ash was a bit further ahead of them and knew that it was definitely the end of the staircase.
However, directly in front of them was a large, heavy stone slab. It was clearly divided in the center and would slide apart in each direction.
Except Ash had no way of knowing how to make it do that.
Probably that password Na mentioned, since we didn’t need anything before this point.
Wincing, Ash felt his tribulation shudder and lunge toward him again. Only for it to fall back fairly quickly once more.
The constant attacks and retreats were starting to wear on him.
They were also increasing in severity and frequency. As if his tribulation were ramping up toward its final testing of him.
Which was a rather unnerving thought since he clearly wasn’t at the defensive formation. He was also almost positive that his chances of surviving the tribulation without assistance were non-existent.
“Jade and humans, both are sharpened by bitter tools,” Na groused as Chunhua approached the door.
Ash raised an eyebrow at that. He’d never heard the expression, but it felt like it fit well with the cultivator lifestyle.
Turning into a solid glowing green color, the door made a slamming noise but didn’t move. Then, with aching slowness, the doors began to part from one another.
Dust and grit began to fall and drop into the opening between the doors as they moved.
“Weird,” Ash mumbled. Looking at the falling bits of debris, he had no idea what else it could mean except that this door hadn’t been opened in quite a while.
Maybe the Deng had been working to suppress the Jade Vaults. If there’s less Jade Masters, that’d likely mean there’s less resistance.
It’s quite likely that all those people they attacked would have eventually been considered resistance as well. Preemptively taking out the competition before they could become it.
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