Chương 18: Chapter 17: IN THE WOODS

CHAPTER 17 IN THE WOODS —∞— Hardly a month and a half ago, the Fatebloom Woods had been quite the sight. Jieyuan remembered clearly his first impressions of it. To him, the trunks of the fatebloom trees had been like massive, towering pillars of gold that rose impossibly high. And when you looked up, the crowns of the fatebloom trees, so full of fatebloom blossoms, gathered and mingled high above to form an ocean of blood streaked with veins of emerald.

All colors—gold, red, and green—unnaturally rich and vivid, brimming with vitality. Now, as he stood at the edge of the Fatebloom Woods, he found that his earlier impressions remained true enough. But the impact of them—the effect they had on him—was a different story. After you got used to kaleidoscopic glowing crystal plantlife, it took a bit more than tall trees and an unusual color palette to awe you. Jieyuan's heart beat fiercely in his chest, and his legs burned.

Augmented stamina or not, he wasn't a tenth-step Redrealm yet. Running for over two hours straight still took some wind out of him. Stepping into the woods proper, he stopped beside a fatebloom tree and gave his racing heart some time to realize he wasn't running anymore, and so neither should it. He could feel the tree beside him and another one off to the side with his soulsenses, massive shapes of fifth-shade red.

Following Meiyao's instructions, he'd sneaked out of the sect through a hidden path in the mountains just behind the outer court's residential area, and from there, he'd made straight for the Fatebloom Woods. He'd left the sect just before daybreak, and now it was morning proper: a cool and pleasant morning, even more so with the sun still on its way to its peak and under the shade of the massive trees around him. In his left hand, Jieyuan held the two talismans Meiyao gave him.

He'd had them out and ready from the moment he'd left his place, just in case. On that same hand was also the Yikongwei Ring, the small, golden wooden band wrapped around his forefinger. Jieyuan reached to the side of his waist with his right hand and unsheathed Meiyao's saber. As he stared down at its sleek blade, something slightly bitter rose inside him, like the echo of nausea. He studied his warped reflection on the metal while he measured his own reactions and feelings.

He couldn't explain what exactly this bitterness was or where it came from. All he knew was that it came, unfailingly, every time he held a blade, like clockwork. Sabers weren't so bad. Holding one, he could power through the discomfort, as he was doing now, to the point he could mostly ignore it. Swords were something else. They didn't just unsettle him; they disturbed him. Looking at one, or even facing one in battle, was no problem. Holding one was where the problem lay.

It wasn't out of preference alone that he'd picked the spear. Blades as a whole were a no-go. Swords were outright unbearable, and all the other kinds of blades (sabers, daggers, knives) were too uncomfortable for regular use and practice. He'd tried, for months, to overcome his seemingly inherent aversion towards them, but while the aversion hadn't grown stronger over time, it hadn't weakened, either. That'd left other types of weapons, such as maces, hammers, axes, and polearms as a whole.

Out of those, he'd picked the spear. He'd done so mostly out of practicality; it was the most widely used weapon after the sword and the one easiest to find tutors for. The spear had served him well enough so far, and up until recently, he'd felt that he'd made the right choice. Nowadays, though, a very similar kind of bitterness to the one he currently felt started welling inside him whenever he thought of Daojue, and how much better he was at the spear.

Jieyuan twisted his right wrist, reorienting the blade of the saber, and his reflection broke, the cutting edge of the blade now aligned with his line of sight. Feeling his heart settle and his legs stop burning, Jieyuan set off. Seen from above, the Fatebloom Woods formed an almost perfect circle, and his destination was the very center. The Heartseat, as the Yikongwei called it. He didn't run but still set a brisk pace. Talismans in one hand, saber in the other. He kept an ear out as he progressed forward.

Unlike the Gleamstone Valley, the Fatebloom Woods did have some mundane vegetation, mostly in the form of shrubs and undergrowth. Together with that came some mundane creatures, mostly small critters and insects. It wasn't nearly to the same extent as a mundane woodland, but enough so that the Fatebloom Woods weren't entirely devoid of the chirping, creaking, and rustling you'd expect from a forest. What he was looking for were other sounds. Heavier ones. Namely, hoofbeats.

The only chromal beasts known to live here were fatebloom elk, fifth-step Redrealm beasts. His soulsenses now had a range of eighteen feet or thereabouts, but that was a distance that a fatebloom elk could cross in the blink of an eye, so his hearing would still be able to alert him long before his soulsenses could. For all his caution, though, even as he weaved through the trees and advanced deeper into the forest, he failed to come across a single fatebloom elk.

Jieyuan looked around warily, slowing down his pace a bit to more measured strides. He had a fairly decent mental map of the Fatebloom Woods in his head—both from Rongkai's jadebook and the sect's archives—and based on how much he'd walked so far, he knew he was far past the supposedly safe outer zone. He was deep in fatebloom elk territory now, or at least he should've been. Now, he wasn't complaining.

But Rongkai had left rather emphatic notes in his jadebook despairing at what he'd called a veritable army of fatebloom elk guarding the Heartseat. From his descriptions, it'd seemed like the deeper regions of the Fatebloom Woods were teeming with the beasts. The sect's records on the woods had supported that impression, being very clear on the point that it'd be the height of folly for anyone under ninth-step Redrealm to leave the safe zone. He looked up warily at the fatebloom trees around him.

Dangerous as the ground level was, the higher levels weren't much better. He'd read a bit further on the Fatebloom Woods since his last trip here, and he'd discovered that fatebloom elk could climb trees using their spiritskill, and could often be found prancing about high above in the canopy. The nearest branch was over a hundred feet up, though, and Jieyuan caught nothing happening high above.

Jieyuan kept on going, warier than ever despite the absence of enemies—if anything, that absence only made him warier—his footsteps resounding throughout the forest as at any time he expected an ambush from just about all directions except for directly underneath. He kept on drawing closer to the center, closer and closer, and by his estimate, he was almost there when he heard a dull, loud sound coming from up head. The sound of hoofbeats.

Jieyuan slowed, slowing his stride to a careful, deliberate stalk, and as he rounded a particularly large fatebloom tree, he sighted three massive creatures up ahead. Even if he had never heard or seen a description of what fatebloom elk were supposed to look like, he'd have still been able to tell that was what those three beasts ahead. Because they were clearly elk, and, more importantly, they were clearly native to the Fatebloom Woods, sure as the gleam beasts were native to the Gleamstone Valley.

The beasts were significantly larger than any mundane elk Jieyuan had ever seen (standing beside them, he wouldn't reach even the halfway mark of their necks) with massive, muscular bulks. Their antlers were wide, sprawling and sharp -looking, flaring out and backward, and the same golden color as the bark of fatebloom trees. Golden fur coated their heads and neck, but the rest of their body was the same blood-red crimson as fatebloom blossoms, with streaks of emerald-green fur running down their back and legs.

If the name of the fatebloom elk wasn't clue enough, then their appearance left little doubt that they shared the same origin as the fatebloom trees. Jieyuan was still a good distance away, still half-hidden behind a tree. The elk didn't seem to have noticed him yet. Two of them had their heads buried in a shrub, probably eating, while the third was ambling about aimlessly. They all seemed to be about the same size, and judging by their size he'd say they were all adults, and given their antlers, male.

These were fifth-step Redrealm beasts, just like the massive, fire-breathing gleam serpent he'd face together with Daojue and Meiyao in the Gleamstone Valley. He tightened his grip on the saber and ignored the spike of discomfort that provoked. Fatebloom elk were highly territorial. According to Rongkai's jadebook, they did their best to stop others from venturing deeper into the woods, stopping them from reaching the Heartseat.

Which, as he saw, was a rather pointless, thankless job that they took upon themselves, considering the distracter field did a much better job than the beasts ever could of keeping others away from it. They should primarily attack using their antlers through rams and charges, but nothing was stopping them from kicking at him with one of those massive legs or trying to bite his neck off. Either a bite or a kick could have him down for good, depending on where it landed. The real danger should be their spiritskill.

Crimson Fate Attraction. They could use it to pull others—beings and objects alike—towards them, in varying degrees of strength, and they were adept enough at using it to climb up trees by using it on the trunk, pulling it toward the hooves. Since the trees wouldn't move, being quite literally rooted in place, they were the ones drawn to it instead. All in all, they were deadly beasts; it was no wonder Rongkai had been wary of them. But Jieyuan had something Rongkai didn't: a haste-spacer.

And as deadly as fatebloom elks, they couldn't manifest hastespace. Only, if Jieyuan played his cards right, he wouldn't even have to waste his chroma on hastespace. The tension that had been building inside Jieyuan for a while now peaked. At the same time, a part of him relaxed, because at least now the enemy was in sight. But how to proceed?

He hadn't imagined he'd be able to get to the Heartseat without some fighting—if it were that easy, Rongkai wouldn't have prepared so much for it—but he also hadn't thought he'd only come across fatebloom elk so close to the Heartseat. The boundary of the distracter field shouldn't be much farther beyond the three elk, and if he only could get inside the field, he'd be safe.

Rongkai's jadebook had been clear that the elk weren't immune to the effects of the distracter field and that they were unable to enter the Heartseat. All they did was guard it against all and any for reasons that mystified the Yikongwei. He could try and make a break for it.

He couldn't outrun the elk—it would've been impossible even if they were at the same step, let alone with them being two steps higher—but if he could stall them for just a few moments, that might just buy him enough time to make his way through. The problem with that was the elk would still be there when he made his way out and likely out for his blood, unless he opted for a different direction when leaving.

Considering the one he'd come in was just about free of fatebloom elk up to this point, he wasn't sure it was worth chancing another. His choice was taken from him when the one fatebloom elk prancing about came to a sudden stop and twisted its neck in his direction. Its eyes were beady and completely black, like bottomless pits, seemingly devoid of any sort of emotion. Keeping its eyes on him the entire time, the beast slowly moved its body so that it was fully facing him. Its head was angular, streamlined.

Jieyuan swallowed. He'd faced gigantic crystal snakes and wolves and other beasts, but the fatebloom elk, normal as it looked in comparison, was no less intimidating, cast in the shade of the canopy hanging far above. It looked like a small hill; its muscles were clear even under its thick coat. The beast's mouth parted slightly, revealing large, pointed teeth Jieyuan was sure mundane elk didn't have. It let out a sharp, loud, whine-like bark.

The other two fatebloom elk raised their heads from the shrubs they'd had their heads buried in, and they both turned to face him. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Jieyuan responded to their stillness by similarly staying put. He weighed his options as he stared back into the beady eyes of the fatebloom elk at the front.

Fatebloom elk were territorial and highly hostile, but as long as you showed no signs of aggression and gave no indication of encroaching on their territory, they wouldn't attack. What this meant was that they wouldn't go on the offensive unless he attacked them first or moved forward now, in their direction. In a straight fight, he'd be hard-pressed to face a single one of them, even with his current chromal artifacts. Three were way more than he'd have been able to handle.

It was a good thing, then, that he didn't care much for fighting fair. He clenched the talismans in his left hand tighter. He could use them, and they'd definitely get him through to the Heartseat if he used them, but those were a last resort. He did have something else, though.

Slowly, so he wouldn't startle the beasts, he reached with his left hand inside one of the inner pockets of his outer robe and took out a large, fat pinkish-red pill, holding it between his forefinger and thumb, as his remaining fingers clutched the talismans. Cultivator's Agony Beacon. Rongkai had come up with the pill precisely so he could brave the Fatebloom Woods. It'd only be fitting to use it now. Jieyuan threw the pill.

It'd barely left his fingers when the elk at the front charged forward, and barely a moment later he felt something pulling him forward, like he'd just jumped off a cliff and was falling—except in the direction of the elk charging at him. He dug his heels into the ground, resisting the pull, and the next moment the pill, already primed, exploded in the clearing in front of them, covering them all in a cloud of red dust. Poisonous dust.

All three elk recoiled, momentarily disturbed, and the invisible pull acting on him vanished. Jieyuan straightened up, drawing himself back; acting quickly, he jumped back to put more distance between himself and the elk. Crimson Fate Attraction had a limited range, and he only stopped when he was safely out of it, some good dozen feet away. The elk seemed to have recovered from their surprise at the beacon, and they advanced on him again from within the floating, faintly glowing red dust.

Keeping all three in his line of sight, he commanded,"See me attack." An invisible, intangible connection snapped into place between him and the three beasts, and Jieyuan immediately felt chroma start vanishing from his soulprism at a very fast rate. But it did the trick, because the elk stopped advancing, and the one at the front charged at an empty spot to Jieyuan's right.

As with any hallucination that didn't target himself, Jieyuan had no way of telling what exactly the elk were seeing, but the intention he'd imbued into the command should have them unable to see or otherwise perceive him while making them hallucinate him confronting them. As the beasts had no way of telling they were under the influence of some power, they wouldn't resist, nor would they put up any subconscious resistance, since the command would cause them neither pain nor directly incapacitate or kill them.

And the command itself wasn't that costly; the cost was driven up by the fact he was commanding three beasts at once, all of them at a higher-step, but it'd still be cheaper and safer than manifesting hastespace. The Heavens didn't rate influencing chromal beasts as highly as other cultivators. Staying put, he reached inside his robe and took out one of Rongkai's antidote pills and downed it, just in case he might need to speak or give another command inside the beacon cloud.

One of the fatebloom elk launched itself against a tree, its massive body rotating sideways in midair, clearly under the influence of some unseen force. Its hooves met the trunk of the tree, and it climbed a good stretch of it almost instantaneously before launching itself off the tree, coming down from above toward a particular spot, while the other two elk charged at it from the ground. It was a surprisingly coordinated attack. Jieyuan sure was glad he wasn't at the empty spot all three were attacking.

Any moment now. Their hallucination of him had, as he'd intended, kept the beast within the dust beacon and breathing in the poison. And as the elk drew back from the spot they'd just unsuccessfully mounted a collective attack on, they all stumbled and let out loud, blood-curdling shrieks. And here we go. Jieyuan immediately cut off the command and advanced. The elk didn't seem to have noticed the sudden disappearance of their illusory enemy, all three of them trembling and shrieking loudly.

They didn't move much, as if they'd forgotten how to; one of them even slumped, falling to the ground as it shuddered. The Cultivator's Agony Rongkai had infused in his pills was only at third-step Redrealm. These beasts were at fifth-step. That meant its potency when used on them was reduced to less than half. Even still, it still wrought enough pain to render them completely motionless and impotent. Chances were that these beasts hadn't even known pain before.

There was nothing that could threaten or harm them in the Fatebloom Woods, and they weren't known to fight among themselves. The other two elk fell to the ground as well, convulsing. Jieyuan moved swiftly. Meiyao's saber in hand, he advanced on the first elk. Reaching it, he rounded its kicking, trembling legs, and placing himself in front of its head, stabbed the beast between its eyes. There was some resistance as the saber sunk into its head, piercing through the skull, but not much.

The beast shuddered and then slumped. The other two beasts took no notice of it all, too overwhelmed by pain, and Jieyuan was quick to dispatch them as well with similar blows. All three beasts now dead, Jieyuan cast a quick look around to make sure the commotion hadn't drawn any other beasts over; if it had, it'd be better to deal with them now, before heading to the Heartseat. But then he froze as he saw, not a beast, but a woman standing just at the edge of the beacon dust.

The woman was leaning against a fatebloom tree, her arms crossed, as she stared at him. On her body were green robes. Emerald robes. She wasn't wearing an elder's coat, so a core disciple. She looked to be about the same age as him, maybe a little bit older.

"Oh, don't mind me. Go about your business. I'm very interested in finding out what it was that brought you here to the Fatebloom Woods today." The core disciple eyed the dead elk.

"Unless you were just in the mood for venison?"

"Geshihan or Fusongshi?" Jieyuan asked, gripping his talismans tighter. He subtly reoriented himself to point his saber at her, while he put his left hand, with the talisman, behind his back. He didn't know what the woman's step was, but it should be safe to assume she was over third-step; otherwise, she wouldn't have been sent after him. It should also be safe to assume she was under tenth-step; otherwise, she'd have been an elder.

He shouldn't be in the range of her soulsenses, and if she'd tailed him from the sect from afar, she couldn't have come close enough at any point to do so. So she shouldn't know what the talismans he was holding were.

"Fusongshi," she said.

"I heard you killed my cousin."

"You mean Sunqiu? The inner disciple?" He didn't really see the resemblance. She nodded.

"Yes, Sunqiu."

"Ah." Jieyuan licked his lips. Was she alone? If she was, a Radiant Light Blast talisman could take her. Meiyao had explained to him how they worked. But if there were others, particularly elders, then he couldn't afford to waste the talisman just yet.

"It wasn't personal?"

"I know," the woman said, "honestly, I didn't really care for him. He was from a branch family. And while I'm here because you killed him, it's not because of his death, exactly—but more along the lines of how you killed him. Rather, what I followed you here for was to find out how you—a third-step Redrealm—managed to get close enough to punch a hole in his neck." She moved away from the tree, straightening up.

She was shorter than he'd thought she'd be; still tall for a woman, but a good few inches shorter than Meiyao and Yunzhu.

"Or at least that was the idea," she said.

"Now I'm also very curious as to why you've made your way all over here. Would you care to share?" Jieyuan glanced at the corpses of the fatebloom elk, and then back to the core disciple. If he was reading this situation right, then he might be able to deal with the woman without using his talismans.

"Answer me this first, then. How did you track me here?"

"I had some people watching your residence yesterday. Yours and your teammates'. When they alerted me you left this morning, I followed. On that note, that was an interesting way out of the sect you took. I hadn't known about it."

"I see," Jieyuan said, thinking quickly.

"So it has nothing to do with how Elder Weiming and Qingshi tracked us in the Gleamstone Valley?" The woman frowned, suddenly looking thoughtful.

"Not at all. In fact, how they tracked you is something I've been curious about." Jieyuan took another step back; the woman approached, only to halt just at the edge of the cloud of beacon dust.

"Interesting," she said.

"I'd figured as much, given what happened to the elk, but this is infused with Cultivator's Agony. Something of your own design?"

"Not exactly. I have the formula, though." He took a few more steps back.

"Hmmm." When the core disciple stepped forward into the beacon dust and kept on breathing as normal, Jieyuan decided that she was at least sixth-step; at that step, the gap between her step and the poison's would ensure she'd barely feel anything.

"Now, as for how you were tracked in the Gleamstone Valley… that is also something myself and a couple of others are rather curious about, actually, but the elders were light on the details. But…" She gave him a considering look.

"I do believe it has something to do with Qingshi."

"Qingshi?" Another few steps back. The core forward advanced by the same amount of steps. She'd clearly noticed the way he was gradually retreating, and judging by the smirk on her face, she was amused by it. Thought she had him cornered.

"The elders are rather… odd, when it comes to him. I have to say, I'm glad Elder Taishou caught him. Ever since Qingshi joined the Revolution, the elders have been more secretive than ever. Before, they used to share things with us. They'd tell us not only what we had to do, but also why. Now it's just orders, no explanations. Even my master refuses to answer my questions now."

"Revolution?" His next few backward steps put him past the beacon cloud.

"The Gleaming Nobles' Revolution," the core disciple said.

"It's… No, it'd take too much time to explain." She gave him a measuring look, one that he was fairly certain was practiced.

"You know, you don't have to die," she said.

"The Revolution only needs you gone. Killing you off is certainly the fastest, most practical way of going about it, but it also works as long as you leave for another city, another province. Moreover, the elders don't know that either of us is here. Others were watching you, but I ensured their silence. I didn't want anyone else following you on this little escapade." Behind his back, Jieyuan gripped the talismans tighter.

If that was true, then he could just go ahead and use the Radiant Light Blast talisman on her. But she could be lying, or simply wrong. But it was something. Both of them were too far from the sect to mind-link anyone, even if her mind-linker was tenth-step. The core disciple took a few steps forward to match the one he'd just taken.

"See, I'd be happy to let you off, so long as you share with me how you killed my cousin Sunqiu, as well as what you're doing here. I'm also curious about what you might know about your two teammates, Meiyao and Daojue. And I'm not entirely unreasonable, mind you. I'd be willing to work out a deal with you." Jieyuan quirked an eyebrow up.

"You're awfully curious, aren't you?" More steps back. He was now a good distance away from the place he'd originally started at.

"Personally, I'm partial to inquisitive. Now, I'll let you know in advance that I'm at seventh-step, and this"—she drew the blade she'd sheathed by her waist—"is a tenth-step sword. That saber of yours is Weiming's, correct? I'd heard Meiyao had gotten it, so you must've borrowed it from her. We're about evenly matched in terms of artifacts, and my step is over twice yours. I believe the outcome of any possible clash between us should be fairly obvious."

"True," Jieyuan agreed. More steps. Nothing had happened yet, but he should be close. Very close.

"How do I know you'll keep your word? How do I know you'll let me live if I tell you what I know?" The woman's smile was like that of a predator.

"You can't. But I can assure you that if you don't tell me, you'll die. And it won't be a pleasant death, either, because trust me, I will do my best to drag them out of you. We're cultivators, so normal forms of torture won't be that useful—but don't worry, I can be very creative." She waved her sword in the air in front of her as casually as if she were wagging a finger.

"So it's either the possibility of survival, or the guarantee of torture, and then death. That's just a risk you'll have to take, I guess."

"You really don't have much experience threatening others, do you?" Jieyuan asked. He then moved his saber and raised the blade—toward his own neck.

"How about now?" The woman went still. She stared at him, wide-eyed, and as far as he could tell, genuinely taken aback.

"What— What are you doing?" Jieyuan took a few steps back, still holding the blade against his throat. Come on. The woman didn't seem to notice, now, looking warily at the blade that he was holding against his throat.

"No matter what I tell you, you're obviously still going to torture me—creatively, as you put it—in case I kept anything from you, and then kill me. So both options you so graciously presented me are, in fact, guaranteed to lead to torture and death. So I might as well just kill myself, make sure you don't get anything, and avoid that torture of yours." The core disciple worked her jaw soundlessly.

"Wait—no. Don't. We… We can work something out. I can—""I'm assuming you came on a cloudcraft?" He couldn't see another way she could've followed him without him noticing from the sect to here if she hadn't been above the clouds, as most of it was plain, open ground, and he had been very carefully keeping an eye out.

"Give it to me." He kept on retreating.

"What?"

"You'll give me your cloudcraft, and then I'll tell you what you want to know, once I'm up in the air."

"But— But what's stopping you from just flying away?" He grinned, and returned her words to her, "That's just a risk you'll have to take, I guess. If you really want to know my secrets, that is." As the core disciple seemed to still be trying to come to a decision, he took a couple more steps. And though nothing seemed to change, in his perspective, the core disciple startled, and she blinked, wide-eyed, in his direction. Her gaze was unfocused, though.

She furrowed her brow, took a few steps forward, blinked again. She looked around, searching, confused.

"I— What—" She turned back in his direction, but didn't seem to see him.

"Where…" There we go. The distracter field. Jieyuan took another step back, watching as the woman kept looking around, frustrated and baffled. He hadn't known what exactly would happen once he got inside the distracter field, but he'd bet on something happening. Judging by the woman's state, he probably hadn't just vanished out of her sight; otherwise, she'd have just rushed over to his last spot. The confusion seemed to be deeper than that, more comprehensive.

Slowly, the core disciple approached, and the closer she got, the more her brow furrowed, like she had to force herself to keep moving forward. By the time she reached the spot he'd just been at, she was gritting her teeth. Jieyuan didn't move, staying still. The woman was now standing not even half a foot away, looking straight at him without seeing him, an expression of pure concentration on her face.

Jieyuan jabbed forward with his saber from below, burying over a handspan of cold metal under the woman's chin, right where her neck met her head. Blood spurted out, and he drew the saber back just as cleanly as he'd thrust it inside. The core disciple's soul winked out of sight even before her corpse hit the ground.