Violet Heart

by Patrick Laplante

  “Do you think I’ll give up now? Do you think you’re worthy? I paid so much to obtain the violet heart. It’s mine, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Soon, I’ll possess it, and you won’t even be left with a complete corpse.”

  Darkness and gold intermingled as he swung his massive claw. A poisonous miasma filled the room. Zi Long channeled the holy spirit heart and altered reality in his surroundings. He neutralized the poison and materialized nine pillars. They slammed into the ground around Mo De, who formed hand seals with his sharp claws.

  Blades shot out from his body at oblique angles and shattered the pillars before they could activate, and Zi Long caused them to transform into acidic slimes that self-detonated and coated Mo De’s golden body. Seeing this, Mo De uncorked a vial. It splashed his body with a purifying liquid that removed the corrosive gel. It harvested the corrosion and shot it out as a spray at Zi Long, who stamped his foot down and summoned a massive violet umbrella.

  They were evenly matched. For now.

  Not wanting to give in, Zi Long formed hand seals once more. He channeled his violet heart force in three separate patterns, one for each of the desires he’d mastered. Greed, the desire for pleasant sensations, and the desire for dignity fused with the violet heart force and infused into six intangible stakes. Zi Long flicked his wrist and sent the stakes toward Mo De.

  Mo De, sensing danger, summoned a pouch. He threw out a cloud of dust that ignited on contact with the air in a symphony of blue and green flames. The stakes weakened but pierced through. They struck his four limbs, his head, and his chest. The rogue alchemist froze in time while Zi Long knelt in exhaustion. He closed his eyes as he entered their new battlefield.

  Hold on for as long as you can, the holy spirit said. Help is on the way.

  Chapter 50

  Yue Bing and the elders immediately halted their battle and headed up the stairs in tandem. A thick violet cloud filled the entire plateau that was once covered in green grass, shrubs, and a stone pathway. The black door, which had previously been closed, was open. A violet mist emanated from the inside the palace’s hallowed halls.

  “The sect-guarding treasure must be secured at all costs,” the grand elder said. “In the worst of cases, it must be destroyed. Such a thing must never fall into enemy hands.”

  “But that’s our heritage,” Elder Yan exclaimed. “How can we discard it so easily?”

  “Master never intended for you to inherit the sect, so he never told you this secret,” the grand elder said. “The sect’s guardian treasure, the violet heart, is a vessel. It contains the sect’s guardian spirit, the Violet Heart Spirit. But such a spirit has another name, a secret name. It’s a holy spirit, a being that has sworn to protect our plane for all eternity.”

  “Which is all the more reason why we shouldn’t destroy it,” Elder Yan said.

  “Master once told me why Mo De, and why other villains, have attacked our sect all these years,” the grand elder said. “Every time, the pretense was the destruction of our lineage. But what they were really after was the violet heart. They require a holy spirit crystal for their sin-based alchemy. With such an ingredient, it would be easy to forge a legendary pill, the violet fate pill.

  “Once consumed, the violet fate pill would propel a devilish cultivator to half-step transcendence in body, qi, and soul. Devils this powerful would be unmatched in this plane. Several transcendents would need to defy the plane’s will and sacrifice their lives to kill him. Such a massive loss to the angelic fighters on our plane would tilt the balance in the favor of evil. But if they didn’t, with this powerful new devil’s leadership, the devilish cultivators could take over and subvert the plane’s will. That’s why, so many years ago, our sect sought the Alabaster Group’s protection. Yet despite this, we dared say nothing about the holy spirit crystal to them. We’d grown too weak to protect the violet heart, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to give it up either.”

  “But if the Alabaster Group didn’t know, how could they protect it adequately?” Luo Xuehua said, bristling from the side. “All our personnel have been recalled to various battlefields to deal with a push from the south.”

  “Then this incursion was precisely calculated,” the grand elder said. “I’m afraid one of those two has betrayed both the sect and the north. And given Zi Long’s personality, and Mu Qian’s enigmatic nature, I can only assume it’s the latter.” His expression was sorrowful and dripping with shame.

  Soon they arrived at the entrance. They entered the belching violet mists and entered a receiving room. There was a long hallway in the distance, and a room at the end where two figures were fighting.

  “Let’s hurry,” the grand elder said. “We have no time to waste.”

  They rushed in simultaneously, but the moment they did, the elders of the Violet Heart Sect staggered.

  “What happened?” Sword Master Jin said, catching his friend Elder Yan. In an instant, his clothes had been drenched in black sweat. He was shivering uncontrollably, and his face was gaunt.

  “They’ve been infected with a soul poison,” Yue Bing said, sending wisps of blood energy into each of their bodies. “Moreover, this poison has been specially attuned to the violet heart force unique to the Violet Heart Sect. He anticipated that the elders would come to the holy spirit’s aid.”

  “Is there anything we can do to help them?” Sword Master Jin said, looking at his dear friend helplessly.

  Yue Bing sighed. She sent a cloud of her own blood into each of the six elders’ bodies. Their symptoms alleviated slightly, but not completely. “This will buy them one hour. Anything more and I’ll be weakening myself. There’s no telling how lethal this battle will be, and I’m not willing to risk my brother Zi Long over strangers that wanted to harm him.”

  “Many thanks for your mercy,” Sword Master Jin said, bowing with his hands clasped. “Preserving their lives for now is enough.” He looked toward the hallway warily. “What next?”

  “There’s no telling what poisons they’ve laid,” Yue Bing said. “I’ll walk at the vanguard, while you three guard the rear.”

  Luo Xuehua summoned a sensory formation at her instruction and probed for formation traps. A blue pattern instantly surrounded them. Sword Master Jin held his sword firmly while Zhang Yuanqing held his spear at the ready. Should anything attack them as they traveled through the corridor, his partner’s sword and his spear would be their last line of defense.

  “Let’s go.”

  Chapter 51

  Zi Long’s spirit seeped into a murky sea filled with ochre and malice. He was floating in Mo De’s memories, a place where he didn’t want to delve too deeply. The resentment was suffocating, but reside here he must.

  Children played games with poison, affecting each other in turn until one of them collapsed or died. A young alchemist tortured himself to remember the secrets of his profession, both traditional and otherwise. A failure at breaking through to core formation. And another. And another.

  I can use that, Zi Long thought. He injected violet heart force into the memory and merged them. It became a different version of reality, a possibility that could have been. Mo De achieved his goal and broke through to core formation. His lifespan increased, and he moderated his activities as he bided his time and accumulated power. Zi Long saw hundreds of years go by in the blink of an eye. But as time passed, the memory became shaky, and Zi Long was forced to find another way.

  That bought me an incense time, if that, Zi Long thought as he delved for another memory. An illusion needed something to grasp on, memories that were part of the host’s soul. Unfortunately, there was a flaw: Given enough time, memories would try to reconcile. Should they fail to validate each other, the soul would be alerted, and the affected memory would destabilize the illusion. Here’s another, he thought.

  This time, Mo De was a young boy. He was an orphan, poor and abandoned. He begged on the streets to survive and barely managed to eat. His chance as a poison master and al
chemist came when he was abducted by child traffickers.

  Zi Long manipulated the memory, and the boy was adopted by a rich merchant. His desperate situation turned into an opulent life. He received an education, and he became a cultivator. He joined a cultivation college, where he learned alchemy. Riches, women, and everything he desired came to him.

  Much of the time in the illusion was spent enjoying the fruits of his labor. Greed was foundational to the alchemist, as it was also the core of his devilish origin. The illusion only ended once Mo De failed to break through to core formation. It had lasted two incense times.

  I have enough heart force for one last attempt, Zi Long thought. He rummaged through the man’s memories until he found a three-year-old Mo De, gorging himself on a pie. It was a simple, believable memory, one from before Mo De’s parents had passed away. He weaved an extension into this truth. Now, instead of that single time, his mother would bake him a pie every day. His parents never passed away either. This continued until his midforties, when the alchemist suffered unfortunate heart complications. The illusion stopped before he died. Then the violet spikes shattered, and Zi Long was forced back several feet.

  “Is this all the holy spirit amounts to?” Mo De said.

  Zi Long coughed up blood from the backlash as his qi flowed backward. Mo De’s gargantuan formed stepped over his frail body and grasped the violet heart, which had reappeared on the pedestal once more.

  “I originally didn’t care about your puny life, but you dared to dredge up those painful memories,” Mo De said, his ochre eyes glaring down at Zi Long. He slammed his foot down with monstrous speed, and an intense pain shot through Zi Long’s arm. He screamed as it was completely crushed.

  “That was for showing me hope, which I discarded long ago,” Mo De said, glaring.

  Zi Long’s other arm exploded as the alchemist slammed his palm into it. His consciousness teetered on the edge of oblivion as the mixture of pain and blood loss caused him to drift into shock.

  “That was for showing me my past and my parents, who abandoned me,” Mo De said softly. Three streams appeared around his waist like a living belt. They slithered on the floor and snuck into Zi Long’s bloody stumps. Zi Long felt like his body was on fire. Thousands of tiny blades cut his flesh from within while sores appeared on his skin.

  “You should never tempt a devil with what they want but cannot have,” Mo De said. “Make sure you take that lesson to your next life.” The alchemist raised his palm. Yet just as he was about to strike, his body vanished and reappeared a short distance away. The air above Zi Long exploded in a cloud of ice.

  Luo Xuehua, Zi Long thought. Thinking fast, he used his incandescent force to summon thirty-six red sigils. He poured the entirety of his fire qi into them and caused them to destabilize. Then he sent his Devil-Sealing Intent into the beads and flung them toward Mo De. Just as the alchemist swept down to deflect them, the beads detonated and surrounded him in a sea of holy flames.

  A sword flashed and dove into the firestorm. It hacked once, twice, three times. He recognized the technique. It was a famous technique from the Sword Master lineage, Seven Swords to Heaven. The golden blade grew increasingly powerful as it completed its remaining four strikes. Each one doubled and caused the flame-covered figure to retreat.

  A blue-robed figure flew over with bloody wings. It was Yue Bing, but different. She funneled a large amount of blood vitality into Zi Long, whose arms quickly regrew.

  “You’re lucky you’re not Ling Dong, or that would have taken a lot longer,” she said. The process had only taken five seconds.

  “He took the violet heart,” Zi Long said, gasping for breath. “We need to kill him before he escapes.”

  Yue Bing nodded and flapped her bloody wings. She held out her ankh and funneled a cloud of her blood into the shape of a giant mastiff. It roared and lunged toward the alchemist, who had just extinguished the holy flames. The hound collapsed to a single hit of the alchemist’s fists, only to re-form in the shape of a serpent, who coiled around him to restrict his movements.

  Zi Long, who had no heart force or fire qi remaining, threw out thirty-six blue flags. He withdrew a large violet paintbrush and connected them with 360 intricate lines. It was a standard erosion formation, and when it hummed to life, intense waters raged within its boundaries.

  I’m not done yet, Zi Long thought. He planted thirty-six more flags. This time, they were golden. He splashed 360 golden lines, then painted a matrix of connecting lines with his previous formation. They snapped together and alternated gold and blue. The liquid hissed and bubbled as it transformed to acid. This was a high-grade corrosion formation, one of the best he was capable of. It was also extremely effective against all forms of metal. After all, during his imprisonment, he’d advanced to late foundation establishment.

  Zi Long formed some hand seals, and the formation glowed. The corrosive waters transformed into an acidic flood dragon. It obeyed his commands and crashed into the alchemist, who’d finally banished the blood mastiff and blood serpent and was clashing with Sword Master Jin. The flood dragon struck at the same time as a burning spear from Zhang Yuanqing. Both techniques pierced holes in Mo De’s strong body, who shrieked in pain.

  Encouraged, Zi Long manipulated the dragon to attack once more. The spear-wielding general readied himself for another blow, and Yue Bing summoned stakes of blood. Luo Xuehua, who’d been supporting the battle this entire time, was wielding a globe of freezing water. They threw their attacks simultaneously.

  A bloody haze filled the entire room on impact.

  “Did we get him?” Yue Bing asked uncertainly.

  Zi Long shook his head. The entire time, he’d had his Eyes of Pure Jade activated and monitoring the greed devil. The ochre aura hadn’t faded—rather, it had intensified.

  “He activated his consumption ability!” Zi Long shouted. “Defend!”

  A large fist darted out from the mist and grabbed Yue Bing by the leg. She flapped her bloody wings to escape, but the fist clenched, and her leg disappeared in a spray of blood. The general, enraged, charged into the mist once more. Zi Long cursed him for a fool as the general was struck in the chest by the alchemist’s second fist. He hit one of the room’s many pillars with a sickening thud. Whether he was alive or dead, no one knew.

  It’s over, Zi Long thought. We’re dead. He crumbled his Alabaster Group token, hoping that someone was in the area that could save them. With the ongoing war with the south, that was unlikely. Luo Xuehua also crushed hers. The look she gave him as she fell to the ground bearing three bloody gashes caused Zi Long’s heart to break.

  “Xuehua!” he shouted. He tried to run forward but couldn’t. A claw had grabbed on to his torso.

  “You were the one who forced me to use my consumption ability,” the greed devil growled. “I hate spending more than anything else, and you’ve cost me so much. So much wealth, so much power, so much time.”

  “Just kill me.” Zi Long coughed. His arms were broken, as were several of his ribs.

  “No, I’m going to make you suffer,” Mo De said. “I’m going to make you wish you’d never been born. Your friends are still alive, and I’ll keep them alive until I’ve had my way with them. I’ll make you watch as I inflict torture after torture on their delicate bodies. I’ll—”

  Uncertainty flashed in the devil’s eyes. Then, for the first time, Zi Long saw fear.

  Mo De withdrew a gray talisman from his bag of holding and activated it. His figure warped as he whispered some parting words. “You live. For now.”

  As Mo De vanished, Zi Long saw space distort. Lu Tianhao, Luo Xuehua’s master and a senior partner of the Alabaster Group, appeared. Two core-formation cultivators stood beside him.

  “Take care of their wounds,” the older man said. He looked to Yue Bing curiously and threw a pill bottle at one of the cultivators. “Yue Bing first. She’ll help with the rest.”

  Lu Tianhao spread his jade wings and bathed Zi Long in ange
lic light. He plastered a talisman on his body that caused his broken bones to mend and his internal organs to heal.

  “Tell me everything,” the angel said. “Don’t leave out a single detail.”

  Zi Long looked at his companions, and to the empty pedestal. He thought of his deceased brother Fan Yong and their failure to apprehend his murderer. And for the first time in many years, he wept.

  Chapter 52

  A swirl of three poisons entered Jin Huang as he rose from his cultivation session. His qi was thick and lively, which was no surprise given that he’d just broken through to the middle of foundation establishment.

  Each sub-realm meant a massive leap in strength but required a massive amount of energy. He wondered how much he would need to eventually break into core formation.

  Jin Huang swept his hand, and the filth on his robes disappeared. He swept it again, and his robes dried. Once more, and the odor vanished. Then Jin Huang opened the sewer grate above his head and climbed out onto Evergreen City’s streets.

  It was nightfall, the perfect time to hide. The guards were changing shifts, and people were rushing to return home before dark. The dim lighting didn’t hurt either. He reached the workshop without a hitch.

  “Brother Jin!” a voice yelled. Bai Xiaolong hugged him strongly and felt his arms and head to confirm he was real. “You’re alive. I thought they’d caught you.”

  “It’ll take a lot more than that to catch me,” Jin Huang said. “Now quick, I need to get a hold of Brother Hei. I need to get out of the city as soon as possible.”

  “You never left?” Bai Xiaolong exclaimed.