Violet Heart

by Patrick Laplante

  “With all those people looking for me?” Jin Huang said. “I wouldn’t have lasted a second.”

  Bai Xiaolong nodded. “I’ll be back.” He ran out the door and returned a quarter hour later with Brother Hei, who was panting hard.

  “What the hell are you doing, bringing me back to the workshop at this hour?” Brother Hei said. “I have a wife and kids. This better bring in a hell of a lot of money or I’ll shove your propellers where the light doesn’t— Oh, hello there, Brother Jin!” His expression turned from anger to delight in a fraction of a second. “We thought we’d lost you. It’s so good to see you safe and sound.”

  “I hope you can help me out of the city,” Jing Huang said. “I’ll definitely make it up to you.”

  “No payment required,” Brother Hei said, waving his hand. “This is what brothers are for, to protect each other in times of need. But first, you need to follow me to a safe house. It’ll be far too easy for them to track you down.”

  Jin Huang felt warmth rushing through his entire body. Yes, this is what brotherhood is like, he thought. Bai Xiaolong stayed at the workshop to put up appearances while Brother Hei led him to a cellar. There, he waited for an hour until he heard the sound of a carriage.

  Brother Hei opened the cellar and ushered him into the presence-concealing carriage.

  “You have no idea what I’ve been through,” Jin Huang said. “The sewers are really rotten. If I didn’t have any special arts, I would have died down there for sure.”

  “The sewers?” Brother Hei exclaimed. “So you hid in the sewers. That’s brilliant. No one ever goes down there except for maintenance every decade or so. Even then, they need to bring down professionals, doctors, and warriors. People die down there despite their best preparations.”

  “I guess I got lucky,” Jin Huang said, leaning on one elbow. He looked at the vibrant trees he hadn’t seen in so long, and the wooden buildings, and the pristine city streets. “I’ve always been lucky.”

  Jin Huang heard a sigh. “You can’t always count on luck, boy. Some things are just too good to be true.”

  Then the world started spinning. He realized that he’d been struck in the head, and his consciousness was fading quickly. “You made me a lot of money last time. This time, I’ll ask for double.”

  Darkness took him.

  Chapter 53

  It was high noon when Ling Dong and Darkwing landed on the plateau. Their bodies were brimming with energy, and there was a savage air about their persons that wasn’t there before they’d left. A cry sounded out in the air above them. Huoying, who Ling Dong now recognized as a sovereign-level demon, flew down toward the oasis and hut in a wide circle.

  “You made it back in one piece!” Lan Yin said as she rushed out the door of the shack. Her short red hair blew in the wind as Huoying landed beside her. “And I see you succeeded.”

  “We succeeded, yes,” Ling Dong said. “To tell the truth, we’re still a bit angry about the entire experience.”

  You benefitted greatly from your excursion, Huoying said. Don’t complain when someone gives you a gift. This was the first time the icefire eagle had ever spoken to him. His mental voice was gruff, manly.

  We did, but we almost died, Darkwing snapped back. You’re going to have to make this up to us.

  Huoying sniffed, indicating he would do no such thing. Meanwhile, Lan Yin invited Ling Dong for tea. They sat outside the small shack as barbecue roasted. It was just like the good old days, where they’d enjoyed comfort and civilization. Yet it all felt distant to Ling Dong now. Unnatural. Like he didn’t belong.

  “About our agreement,” Lan Yin said, taking a sip of bitter tea.

  “I can’t give you Darkwing,” Ling Dong said. “He’s not mine to give.”

  Lan Yin pursed her lips. “But you tamed him. You can just pass on his contract.”

  Ling Dong looked at her with violet eyes. She shivered as she realized that they looked more like demon eyes than the eyes of a man. “I didn’t tame him,” he said. “Nor will I. He is my faithful subordinate, so I can’t treat him unfairly.”

  Lan Yin sighed. “I guess it was too much to hope for, to retain the services of a core-formation beast.”

  “I’m not done,” Ling Dong said. “He wants to stay here for a while. I could take him with me, but I just can’t afford his cultivation resources. On the other hand, you can take him with you on transportation jobs. Besides, he likes you. He calls you Mother, and Huoying Brother.”

  “And when he wants to leave…” Lan Yin started.

  “When he wants to leave, he’ll leave,” Ling Dong said. “If he wants to stay, he’ll stay. Nothing has changed about the agreement you mentioned. He’ll be a member of your family just like Huoying is.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Lan Yin said, smiling.

  “One last thing,” Ling Dong said. “I need to talk to Huoying about his ice flame.”

  Ling Dong walked off the porch and toward Huoying and Darkwing. They were both bickering about something, and it was clear that Darkwing was on the losing end of the conversation. Ling Dong projected his Demon-Subduing Intent, and the crown of a sovereign appeared.

  Demon-Subduing Sovereign, Huoying said. I’ve heard so much about you.

  “You saw everything?” Ling Dong said, unsurprised.

  For the most part, Huoying said. Until you were self-sufficient. What can I help you with? He spoke to him as an equal, not an inferior.

  Ling Dong smiled. “I want to borrow your ice flame to temper my body,” he said. “I won’t take no for an answer.” He’d thought this through for a long time. If he begged, he would get nothing. But if he could bargain as an equal, the demon might be willing to negotiate.

  “You’ll need to offer something of equivalent value,” Huoying said blankly.

  Ling Dong revealed two items. “I procured a frigid moon flower from the Nightmare Butterfly Sovereign and a sunblaze orchid from the Clay Dragon Sovereign,” he said. “Could you lend me your flame for those?”

  “Still not enough,” Huoying said stubbornly.

  “You caught me,” Ling Dong said. “I also got a rainbow harmonization ginseng from the Razorback Sovereign. The three said that if you didn’t lend me your flame for those, there was nothing you would take.”

  Huoying’s large claw snatched the three natural treasures and popped them into his mouth. “Go ahead, but don’t kill yourself,” he said. Then he pushed off the ground and dove into the nearby oasis.

  “I’ll be back soon,” Ling Dong said to Darkwing. He walked up to the pool of water and jumped in feet first.

  A frigid aura permeated Ling Dong’s body as he dove into the icy oasis. His blood thickened and his muscles stiffened. Meanwhile, his bones and meridians lost much of their natural flexibility, becoming increasingly brittle the deeper he went. He didn’t stop the freezing—rather, he retracted his qi and vital essence to his organs and his dantian and allowed it to accelerate. Almost anything he damaged in his body could be healed or regrown, but if one of these important parts suffered too much damage, it would be difficult to recover in a reasonable amount of time.

  The pressure in the water increased as he swam deeper and deeper. And the deeper he went, he realized that it wasn’t really water he was swimming in, but a liquified form of ice essence. Its source was a flickering blue light deep within the pool. It grew larger as he approached a demarcation around it that was fully devoid of life.

  Near the flickering blue flame, a shadow appeared before him. It was Huoying, who had been guarding him in his journey to the bottom of the oasis. He greeted the eagle, who retreated behind the flame and continued siphoning its energy into his beast core. Ling Dong approached the flickering flame, which threatened to freeze him solid, with much caution. Once he was thirty feet away from it, he stopped and took out small black brush.

  A dark-blue glow appeared on the tip of the brush, which he ran across his forearm. His stiff fingers expertly painted a complex r
unic character before moving up his arm and painting yet another one. He painted twelve runes as well as 120 interconnecting lines before proceeding to the next arm. Then, after mirroring the process on his left arm, he proceeded to his legs.

  Legs contained larger, stronger bones than his arms. As such, he painted twenty-four rune diagrams on each one of them. Then, with a flick of his finger, his full head of short hair burned away. He painted a twelve-rune diagram on his skull before proceeding to the most complex and large body part: his torso.

  He first painted a small runic character on each rib, twenty-four in total. These were joined through complex lines that led back to his spine. Then, he painted fifteen characters on his chest, which hummed with a soft light as they connected with the rib-bone runes. After confirming the functionality of this runic array, Ling Dong’s brush moved slowly as it painted thirty-three thick runes, one for each vertebra. These runes were different than any of the others he’d painted before. They were the core runes used in forging his spine, the most important bones in his body. They formed the foundation of everything, and all transformations in his body would stem from this central part.

  As Ling Dong finished the last stroke of the last rune, the thirty-three-rune diagram hummed to life. The diagrams on his arms, legs, and skull activated in response and snapped together with the complex lines on his torso. Then they emitted a suction force. The blue flame situated thirty feet away suddenly tilted toward him, and a large amount of icy power within the flame rushed into Ling Dong’s spine. Pain unlike anything he’d ever felt soon followed.

  Ling Dong’s golden bones, which had previously undergone tempering with fire and invigoration with wood, began to freeze over. His entire body became numb as the nerves in his spine were frozen solid. He did nothing to stop this change; it was necessary for him to perfectly freeze every inch of his body and become one with the cold.

  Once every bone was frozen solid, he took a deep breath and activated small voids within them. The vital energy he’d retracted previously quickly spread throughout his body, causing it to thaw at a rapid pace. The cold energy was forced out by the vital energy, causing his bones to crack. Small fractures appeared all over his skeleton. His vital energy repaired these cracks and chips as soon as they formed.

  A half hour passed before everything was back to normal. After confirming he was back to full health, Ling Dong withdrew his vital energy once again. He took in another dose of cold energy and repeated the process. He continued until he’d completed twelve cycles. With each cycle, small dislocations appeared across his golden bones, and tiny blue runes appeared all over them, joining the predominantly golden runes and the scattered red and green runes that were already there.

  After the twelfth freeze-thaw cycle was completed, no more fractures appeared. Ling Dong took ten small steps toward the icy blue flame. Once he was only twenty feet away from the flame, he repeated the process again.

  Now, not only his bones but his tendons froze as well, along with a large portion of his veins and meridians. As they thawed, the connective tissues broke and tore as his bones shattered. A substantial amount of vital energy was required to heal these, much of which came from energy stored within him from his first three bone forgings.

  It took an entire hour to heal from this forging cycle. And once he’d fully recovered, he repeated it again. Three quarters of an hour. Half an hour. A third of an hour. A quarter hour. Before long, it only took a single minute to heal the damage of a freezing cycle. Finally, he sustained no damage. His veins, tendons, and bones had become immune to this level of cold.

  However, this was far from enough. Ling Dong took another ten steps forward until he was only ten feet away from the frozen flame. The cold-guiding runes on his body roared to life as they took in the ice flame’s raging energy. They guided the cold energy into his spine, where it began to concentrate on several key locations.

  Tiny voids, which had been present since he’d first become a bone-forging cultivator, opened slightly and absorbed a tiny portion of the cold energy. As they did, an increasing number of blue runes appeared on his spine. Once the runes stopped spreading, he took three steps forward. The voids opened just a little more with each step, and soon his entire spine glowed bright blue.

  He’d reached a critical point, and only a final push was required to break through. He took another three steps, until he was only four feet away from the icy blue flame. The cold energy spread from his spine and into his arms and legs. His movements became stiff and unwieldy, but nevertheless, he pressed on. Once the blue glow completely encompassed these major bones, he took another two steps forward, forcing his limbs into a cross-legged position. His hands and fingers glowed blue. His feet glowed blue. And soon, his skull glowed as well.

  While it might seem like these limbs were frozen, this was not the case. The cold energy was flowing through his bones, causing tiny changes to them in the process. His tendons were adapting, as were his meridians, his veins, and even his internal organs. His mind, which had been numbed by the cold, became increasingly clear. Meanwhile, the voids in his bones opened little by little. Days passed by unknowingly.

  While cultivators didn’t need to breathe for many months once they reached this realm, Huoying, who was down there with him, began to worry. He swam over and waved his wings, gently buffeting Ling Dong’s frozen body with slightly warmer liquid. And though Ling Dong wanted to respond, he couldn’t. All he could do was drive his eye technique, the Demon-Subduing Eyes, and chase the eagle away. The soft violet glow calmed Huoying down, who supervised Ling Dong for another four days. By that time, the voids in his bones were completely opened and brimming with cold energy.

  It was at that moment that a loud snap filled the oasis. Ling Dong’s body, which had grown accustomed to the cold, shattered one last time. This time, however, the surrounding water began swirling around him. The dense cold energy nearest to the flame shot toward him as his body drank in its energy. In fact, the core of the flame seemed to dim a little as his body took in its rich earthly power.

  Ling Dong’s strength soared. He aura pushed past mid bone forging and suddenly leapt up to late bone forging. His strength flew up to 8,000 jin as his body broke through the invisible shackles. Meanwhile, his bones underwent a visible change. The blue runes that had accumulated suddenly linked together in an exquisite blue pattern. They joined with the existing gold, red, and green runes and added to the mosaic. The pressure his bones gave off shot up as they were forcefully upgraded to the level of a high-grade magic treasure.

  Finally, Ling Dong’s body, which had previously been frozen solid, shivered. Shards of ice fell off him as his stiff body moved from his cross-legged position to a squatting one. Then, fighting against his now-phenomenal weight, he lifted himself up and pushed off the icy ground.

  His body grew warmer as he approached the surface of the oasis. Huoying followed below him, and the giant eagle expanded in size and lifted Ling Dong out of the water. They shot through the air, splashing ice all over their surroundings. Ling Dong hopped off, looking stronger than ever.

  “It took you long enough,” Lan Yin said. “Barbecue is ready.” She motioned to a pile of demon carcasses and demon bones off in the distance.

  “I happen to be starving,” Ling Dong said. “Let’s feast.”

  Night had fallen, and the table and platters had been wiped clean of anything that could be considered edible. Not only were the two cultivators and two demons full, but the eagle and the drake had fallen asleep together off to the side. Only Ling Dong and Lan Yin remained awake. They stared at the fire in silence.

  “I spoke to Darkwing while you were down there,” Lan Yin said as they drank. This time, it was wine, not tea. “He’s been hunting and mining on his own. Yesterday, I took him on his first courier trip. After we got paid, I took him to buy some natural treasures that will help him break through to the next sub-realm. It’ll take much more next time, but I can tell he can’t wait to go out again
.”

  “Then I’m glad,” Ling Dong said. “All your efforts have paid off.”

  “You did the lion’s share of the work,” Lan Yin said. “By the way, Drakey found something.” She summoned a large chunk of ore, which was roughly the size of Ling Dong’s body. He gasped when he saw it and could tell at a glance that the chunk weighed at least 40,000 jin. “Do you know what it is?”

  Ling Dong nodded slowly. “Not only do I know what it is, it’s a very precious metal. It’s called elemental source iron. It’s compatible with all five elements and is unusually heavy and tough. I’ll be frank with you; I need this metal. I’ll buy it off you.”

  “With what money?” Lan Yin snorted. “Don’t worry about it. This is only a tenth of what we found. You can keep it. Consider it compensation for me throwing you onto a demon-infested mountain. Back pay for time in captivity.”

  “I won’t be polite, then,” Ling Dong replied, storing the ore in his bag of holding. He then summoned his greatsword. The large weapon’s dented blade was quite conspicuous as he held it near the flames. “I started using this sword when I started cultivating. Whenever I got stronger, I added to it and brought it to the next level.

  “Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the metals I needed to keep doing so. Or the skills, for that matter. And now, it doesn’t even feel like part of me anymore. It feels alien. Unnatural.”

  “How did you damage it?” she asked, pointing to the notch.

  Ling Dong sighed. “I once fought with a devilish alchemist. His name was Mo De.”

  “The Mo De?” Lan Yin said. “Then you’re lucky to be alive.”

  “My sword wasn’t so lucky,” Ling Dong said. “Ever since it got notched, its treasure spirit hasn’t been working properly. That’s a large part of why I stopped using it. Another swing, and the sword spirit might vanish forever.”

  “Why don’t you make another sword?” Lan Yin said, drinking her tea. “It would be much easier than upgrading your current one.”