Chương 39: Chapter 38: UNSAFE BETS

It wore the shape of a man, vaguely—tall, upright, familiar—but filled not with muscle or bone. Just a slow, roiling current of BLOOD. Deep, gleaming crimson, thick as melted rubies, flowing with impossible weight. And all around it— MIGHT. A violet shimmer, radiating like unbearable heat. Warping the air around it, if not space itself.

Waves of power rolled off it, so dense, so absolute, Jieyuan felt it even from a distance, bearing down on him. Pressing him toward the ground. Turning his limbs to lead. Stealing the air from his lungs. But worst of all was the silver crown sitting on the blood-man's brow. Not forged, but manifested; something conceptual, symbolic, true. It shone with cold supremacy. The authority to command, to crush, to be obeyed without question. DOMINATION. Jieyuan's knees buckled as the pressure multiplied.

It took all he had to lock his spine into place, plant his feet, keep himself upright. The words didn't come in language. They came like instinct, branding themselves across his mind. Starker and clearer than anything he'd ever gotten through his soulsenses. BLOOD. MIGHT. DOMINATION.

"Jieyuan." Daojue's voice sliced through the vision—sharp, stone-cold—and the blood-man faded away. Jieyuan staggered back a step. His heart skipped a beat, then kicked straight into thunderous drumming. Sweat broke across his skin in an instant. He blinked hard. Something brushed the edges of his mind—Huaxin. Trying to reach him. Trying to cut through the noise. But right now, there was too much of it. Daojue stood as he had before. Normal again. Robes torn, eyes shadowed, weapon bloodied. But human.

Jieyuan exhaled, sharp and shallow. But then he looked again. Reached—not with eyes, but with his Lawsenses… BLOOD. MIGHT. DOMINATION. And there it was. Still there. Just beneath the surface. As his vision began to warp again, as the blood-man bled through, Jieyuan dug deeper, locking onto the signature of Daojue's spiritual song. He caught a glimpse: sound and sight collapsing together. A cold, high melody echoing across a steel-gray peak. Stark. Lofty. Icy. Familiar. It matched. It was Daojue.

But he could still pick up the other set of impressions bleeding off Daojue. Of the man made of blood, wreathed in violet light, crowned in silver. Heavens damn it. Jieyuan pulled away from it, and his heart was just settling when his Lawsenses picked up something else, faint as a whisper— — crystalserpentcorruption — —and his gaze snapped to Gleaming End. The shrouded Gleaming End. It had no presence to his soulsenses, the only presence was that of the spirit-shroud wrapped around it.

And yet the whisper grew louder as he focused, and the space around the spear began to warp, the image of it twisting, stretching, elongating… slowly, languidly… He broke off the connection, thoughts racing. This settled it; his Lawsenses were indeed separate from his soulsenses. They'd pierced a spirit-shroud and sensed things beyond his realm, neither of which should've been possible. Jieyuan turned his attention back to Daojue. Daojue stared right back at him, expressionless.

Stared with those violet eyes; violet like the blood-man's shimmering aura, but shaded deeper, darker. Breaking off his gaze, Daojue glanced down at Jieyuan's feet before flicking his gaze just over Jieyuan's shoulder. Jieyuan didn't need to look to glance back what Daojue was looking at. The three dead tenth-steps. Finally Daojue's eyes fell on the cloudcraft hovering by Jieyuan's waist before returning to Jieyuan himself.

If he was shocked by any of it—by what Jieyuan had done or what he looked like—he didn't show it.

"We must leave," Daojue said without preamble. It wasn't quite a command; more like the statement of a fact. Then again, Daojue always sounded that way. Jieyuan forced himself to ignore the way his soulsenses kicked up a fuss as Daojue stepped closer. He could puzzle over that later. Right now…

"Meiyao and Yongyi first." He turned away to scan the battlefield, not giving Daojue a chance to argue. He didn't know if Daojue would have, but better not risk it. No time to waste. Meiyao, at least, shouldn't be hard to spot. And there was no way she'd been taken down already. Not her.

"Follow," Daojue said. Jieyuan looked over. Daojue was already rushing off the way he'd come. Jieyuan followed, Maeva still summoned, in control of the cloudcraft. Just ahead, an emerald-robed Liangshibai protector was locked in combat with a Xiyunfeng elder. A whirlwind of gleamstone weapons—daggers, shortswords, spinning blades—circled the woman as she lunged at the man. Some shot out as she attacked, even as more blinked into existence around her. The Xiyunfeng twisted through them, met her head-on.

A wave of wind surged from him, scattering her blades, knocking her back. Daojue ran straight past. Jieyuan kept on his heels. His Lawsenses caught some of the gleamstone weapons, and he got blasted by a sense of— crystalserpentcorruption. Not as loud as it'd been with Daojue, but clearer than the whisper he'd gotten from Gleaming End. Then he felt that twist in his Lawsenses, the gleamstone weapons shimmering… He tore his focus away. Grounded himself hard.

One heartbeat more, and he'd have been buried under a rain of slithering crystal snakes. They were almost past when the Xiyunfeng man broke away and lunged at them. But the Liangshibai woman was faster, blurring between them, blocking off the man. And it struck Jieyuan, hard— — CRYSTAL SERPENT CORRUPTION — —coming from the woman this time. Not happening. Jieyuan shoved it away. Kept running. The two tenth-steps fell behind. And then he and Daojue were in the thick of it. Where the street was the most clustered.

More than a dozen fights overlapping; shouts, screams, the crunch of weapons meeting flesh, the air thick with blood and death. Redsouls streaked everywhere, turning into bursts of clarity and solid color amid the chaos when they clashed. They'd barely taken a few steps when a gleamstone blade shot toward them. Daojue struck it down with Gleaming End, splitting it in two mid-run, without even glancing at it. A flicker of brown hair. Jieyuan's breath caught. Relief surged inside him. But then he took in her state.

The orange of her outer robe was mostly gone. Just scraps over her white inner robe—also torn and bloodied. Bleeding cuts everywhere. Dozens. One massive gash across her side, over her hip—ruined flesh, bone visible. Across from her was a green-robed man. Another traitor. They were fighting. Despite the gap in steps and the state Meiyao was in, they seemed evenly matched; and that was because the man was even worse off. His arm was gone past the shoulder. Gashes through his gut. Another across his face.

The Xiyunfeng woman who'd ambushed Jieyuan earlier was nowhere in sight. But there was a black-robed body not far off. And lying not too far away, a green-robed one. Jieyuan was charging in, mid-stride, when the sequence hit, cutting through his thoughts with painful clarity. He stopped, blinked. Waited a beat. Then he flung his right arm out. Ruby shot forward so fast it vanished—before reappearing, with its blade lodged in the back of the traitor's skull.

The man slumped, and as he ran over, Maeva drew on his soulforce, pulling the splitfang free and back into his hand. As he drew closer, he braced himself. And sure enough, the moment Meiyao fell within range of his soulsenses, it came. BEAST. LIFE. DIVINITY. It was as strong as it'd been with Daojue. No. Stronger. Already he felt the pull on his soulsenses, like it was being stretched, twisted. The space around Meiyao warped, her form growing vague. Vast. Lengthening. Becoming a rippling visage of white and green.

Long, curving horns— NO. Jieyuan bit his tongue, dug in his mental heels, and blinked the vision away. Leaving Meiyao there again: normal, human, and not whatever the Heavens that had been. Here and now was not the time and place to fall into a daze. And if the brief glimpse he'd caught was anything to go by, she'd have been even worse than Daojue's blood-man.

"Jieyuan? What—" Meiyao stared at him, wide eyes fixed on his face.

"Not the time," Jieyuan said. He stepped in, eyeing her hip. The wound looked like something had tried to carve her in half. Flesh shredded down to the bone. So much for Qingshi's order to capture her unharmed.

"How are you—" Meiyao grimaced, shook her head.

"I'll hold on." She reached into her holder pouch, fished out a small red pill, took it. Jieyuan didn't like it, but Meiyao was a cultivator. She'd know herself best.

"Then we need to—" DANGER. Huaxin's warning had barely hit when Daojue yanked Jieyuan aside; a gleamstone dagger whistled through where his head had been. From behind. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. He glanced back. Another traitor was advancing on them. But before he could come close, a Liangshibai elder swept in from the other side and engaged the man. Right. They really needed to get out of there.

"Let's find Yongyi and go," Jieyuan said.

"Yunzhu too," Meiyao said. Jieyuan gritted his teeth. He cared not one whit for the psychotic girl, but now wasn't the time to argue.

"Yongyi first. Do you know—""No," Meiyao cut in.

"I—" This time the attack came from the side, and Jieyuan caught it in time—the crystalline glint—and leaned away, letting it fly past him. A quick glance told him it'd been a stray.

"I lost sight of him," Meiyao said. Jieyuan sent his soulsenses inward, focused on the Fatebloom Heart. Three minutes left. They'd become prime targets once they took to the air. He'd need at least a minute of Fatebloom Instinct just to get them out. Meaning he only had two more minutes to spare—and the earlier they left, the better. His chroma was also close to running out, and he'd need some to fuel the cloudcraft. Huaxin? Jieyuan sent.

He wasn't sure if Fatebloom Instinct could be used for something like this, but there was no harm trying. A second, two… Then he felt their connection flaring, deepening, like it did whenever Huaxin sent him a sequence. He almost grinned. He would have. But then the sequence flashed past. He was moving immediately, rushing past Meiyao. He could sense Meiyao and Daojue following, but his attention was ahead, beyond a packed cluster in which several tenth-steps fought…

He went past them without stopping, moving as the sequence dictated, dodging stray attacks— And there, up ahead, he saw Yongyi standing in place, half-obscured by the encroaching smoke. Exactly as the sequence had shown him. Which was the problem. Because it hadn't painted a pretty picture. Yongyi had one of his arms clutching a limp, bloodied form to his chest. Liangshibai Feiyuan, probably. His other hand clutched a sword. He wasn't fighting.

There was a Liangshibai elder in front of him, facing a woman from the Xiyunfeng Clan. Not that Yongyi was in any position to fight; he was drenched in blood, barely holding himself up. The sequence had already ended. Jieyuan kept running, closer, the fighting tenth-steps within range of his soulsenses now, Yongyi not even thirty feet away. Huaxin— There was movement behind Yongyi. And then something wide and sharp burst out of his chest. A shrouded spearhead.

"NO!" Meiyao screamed. Yongyi's body flung aside, revealing another Xiyunfeng elder, who rushed toward where his clansman was fighting the Liangshibai. Yongyi disappeared in the chaos. Jieyuan kept running. Maybe—just maybe— Then the air split beside him; something ripped past. So fast it was barely visible. And his Lawsenses screamed at him. BLOODCRYSTALBLOODCRYSTALBLOODCRYSTAL. Jieyuan stopped cold, throwing an arm out to catch Meiyao. More tenth-step Redsouls appeared up ahead, swarming in, joining the fray.

Jieyuan scanned them frantically, heart hammering, searching for whatever he'd just sensed; but all he saw were churning tides of tenth-steps, clashing and shifting, blurring together, merging with the gathering smoke.

"Jieyuan!" Meiyao snapped at him, trying to push past his arm. But he kept his hold on her tight.

"Let—""No." Jieyuan pulled her in, against him, fully wrapping his arm around her, keeping her from getting away.

"We're leaving." They weren't getting to Yongyi. Not through all that. Not in the middle of that swarm of tenth-steps Redsouls. And that thing he'd sensed… Just the thought of it—the echo of what he'd sensed—made his skin crawl. Daojue's blood-man had nearly brought him to his knees. But that presence … Just that snap-second glimpse had seized his heart in a frigid grip, chilling him so deeply the cold still clung to him, like his spine had turned to ice. They needed to get out. Now.

Meiyao fought his hold, but it was no contest. He barely had to make an effort to hold her back. Maeva hovered just behind him, riding his cloudcraft. He jumped onto it, hauling Meiyao along with him. Daojue leaped on just behind. Meiyao was screaming at him, still struggling. He ignored her. All his focus was on the battlefield, shrinking beneath them as Maeva flew them up into the blue-lit, flame-licked night sky.

They rose quickly, but they'd barely gotten a dozen feet up in the air when Jieyuan learned for himself why nobody had managed to escape on a cloudcraft yet. A sequence struck him barely a moment before a volley of gleamstone blades erupted from below. Maeva—acting on the sequence—wrenched the cloudcraft sharply to the side, then to the other as another barrage of blades tore upwards at them, all the while continuing their rise, climbing higher and higher.

Jieyuan let go of Meiyao and slashed both Shifting Sisters down, deflecting two of the blades that Maeva hadn't managed to avoid. Beside him, Daojue met the assault head-on, Gleaming End flashing in wide, brutal arcs that shattered the projectiles. Meiyao stayed back, not contributing; she wasn't in any condition to help, wounded as she was. And Jieyuan was already more than happy with her just staying on the cloud rather than jumping off it. Cloudcrafts were fast.

A third and fourth volley came at them at the same time, but by then they were already too far up in the air and none of the blades came close. Jieyuan kept his eyes trained on the battlefield. The street looked as bad from above as it had from ground-level. Scarlet streaks flashed as other cloudcrafts tried to rise from among the rolling smoke; but they were all struck down immediately, swallowed by tides of gleamstone blades.

No telling whether they'd been pursuers struck down by the Liangshibai, or Liangshibai struck down by traitors within the sect. Somewhere down there was Yongyi. Dying, if not already dead. Jieyuan focused on the spot they'd been at, scouring it for some glimpse of him—but nothing. Smoke had already claimed that side of the street, swirling and twisting violently as the tenth-steps waged war within.

His last clear glimpse of the street was Qingshi and Elder Yiming, clashing again and again at the center of it all, isolated from the rest, gleamstone barriers blinking into existence all over around them. Then came the smoke; it had gathered in the sky above, and they flew straight into it. Thick. Cloying. The taste of rot and ashes filled his throat. For a few harrowing moments, the world vanished into swirling, sweltering gray—and then they burst free into open air. And down below… Jieyuan stared.

He'd suspected—knew, at some level, but— Fire. Fire and smoke. Blue and gray. Blue flames rolling, twisting, churning amid the rising gray smoke. Fire and smoke and nothing else. The only hints of brightgold were on the far walls enclosing the city, now looking like a golden dam around an ocean of flame. The fire wasn't normal. That he could feel its heat was proof enough, never mind that it could burn brightgold.

But at no point had he caught it with his soulsenses, not even when it was well within range, back during their ascent. This wasn't Redrealm fire. This was something higher-realm. If there was any doubt about it before, then this settled it for good. The Gleaming Nobles and the Xiyunfeng Clan hadn't done this alone. They had Orangerealm help. A t least Orangerealm. He focused on the Fatebloom Heart and found he only had seconds left of Fatebloom Incarnation. Seconds. Heavens damn it.

He checked his soulprism next and saw less than a third of his soulprism remained. Rot. He wouldn't be able to keep up his hastespace much longer, either. Just a few minutes. Even more so since flying the cloudcraft was eating up his chroma like crazy too. He looked past the city. Far in the distance were the Gleaming Stone Mountains. And in the opposite direction… the Viridian Dome. It loomed in the horizon; it was the horizon. Eerie and massive, glowing with dark green light.

At its base was the faint corona of the Viridian Forest: the outer part of it, wrapped around the dome like a ring, and alight with its own duller, darker glow. The Ringwood. In all other directions, all that could be seen were empty stretches of grasslands, hills, and groves. Somewhere beyond—farther than he could see—lay the seat of the Xiyunfeng Clan, and even farther out there would be other cities, other sects.

He didn't have enough chroma left in him to reach the Gleaming Stone Mountains, let alone these faraway places. And there was no guarantee that even if they could get to the sect they'd be safe. It was a matter of seconds before some of the enemy managed to take to the air, and they'd have pursuers hot on their heels.

No pursuer would gain on them—cloudcrafts all had the same top speed, regardless of who controlled them—but the moment he ran out of chroma, they'd be back on the ground—and then the pursuers would be upon them in a snap. If they went for the Viridian Dome, though… Nobody would be following them inside. Not when it was a death sentence in geographical form. A death sentence. But maybe not to them. He guessed at the distance. It was much closer than the Gleaming Stone Mountains. It'd be tight, very tight…

But he might have enough chroma to get them over to it. But that didn't matter if they'd die inside. He needed a better idea of the odds. Huaxin? Do you think— AFFIRMATION. The reply came instantly. But though it was positive, Jieyuan wasn't exactly assured. There was a dark, ominous undercurrent to it. A foreboding tone that words couldn't convey. Even worse, Jieyuan could also sense a tinge of uncertainty in it. He gritted his teeth. It'd have to do. Maeva didn't need to be told.

She steered the cloudcraft toward the green horizon. They were on course for barely a second, wind whipping at them, the adhesive properties of the cloudcraft the only thing holding them down, when all the strength and energy fled Jieyuan, abruptly and totally. Like his body had gone hollow, drained of everything. He dropped to his knees; if it hadn't been for the adhesive properties of the cloudcraft, he'd have staggered off it, carried away by the wind.

He'd barely collapsed when two pairs of hands grabbed at him, pulling him back in, holding him up, in place. He inhaled slowly, shaking, before he steadied himself. Daojue released him. Meiyao didn't. She kept a firm grip on his shoulder, studying his face.

"What happened—" she shouted over the howling wind.

"Later," Jieyuan gasped out hoarsely. He fought back the exhaustion and forced himself to think, to get his mind moving again. Fatebloom Incarnation was over. And with it… He checked, just to be sure, hoping against hope. But he couldn't feel Huaxin at all. So that's that. He glanced down and saw the burning city was already long behind them, and in the other direction, the Viridian Dome, becoming larger and larger, swallowing even more of the landscape as the distance between them rapidly shrunk.

He took another steadying breath, then nodded to Meiyao, who only then let go. Then he took a tentative step forward. And then another, and then another, until he was standing at the front of the cloudcraft, beside Maeva. Facing the Dome ahead. Another deep breath. He focused on the cloudcraft beneath his feet. Maeva gave him a long, worried look, but said nothing as she turned control of the cloudcraft over to him. There was a brief stutter, and then it was flying smoothly again. Thank you, he sent her.

"Don't die, Amyas," she said, her voice impossibly clear and sharp through the wind. Not planning on it, sis. He cut off Absolute Will Command, and she winked out of existence. If he wanted to get through this, he'd need to hold onto as much of his chroma as possible. Every single second counted. Meiyao stepped up beside him, staring ahead, hair and robes billowing madly in the rushing wind. Her expression was hard, tight. She said something, but he couldn't hear it over all the noise.

She frowned, then he felt a pressure in his head. A mind-link connection. He accepted it, and Meiyao's voice rang directly in his head: Yongyi. Jieyuan saw it again. The shrouded spearhead sticking out of Yongyi's chest, and then Yongyi's being flung aside, limp. He took a deep breath. Nothing we could've done, he sent back at her. Meiyao set her jaw, worked it, not looking at him. Ahead, the Viridian Dome grew bigger and bigger. Her eyes gleamed, moist.

Then her voice came to him again through the mind-link: You're taking us to the Dome. I am. Normally he'd have been glad for a shift in topic, but this one wasn't much better. Daojue still stood further behind them on the cloudcraft, unmoving. Why? Meiyao asked. It's our best bet. Now she turned to face him. He kept looking straight ahead. It's certain death, she sent. No, he responded. It's uncertain death. He paused to work out the words, trying to get through the sluggish haze his mind was in.

It was like wading through syrup, and the way his attention was divided between the conversation and the cloudcraft didn't make it any easier. What's certain is that if we head anywhere else, we'll get caught, he went on. If we head there, we won't. And… And there was that bit that Viridian Eye fellow, Houliao, said about seeking the Viridian. I think that's what he was talking about. Viridian Death cultists are insane, Meiyao sent back. And nobody's ever come out of the Dome. Not even Yellowsouls.

I said it was our best bet, Jieyuan answered. Not that it was a safe one. He felt a little better already, more alert, his augmented stamina already working for him. But if you've got any other ideas, I'm all ears. Meiyao fell silent. But then Daojue shouted over the howling wind: "ENEMIES!" Jieyuan couldn't turn around; he had to keep looking ahead to steer the cloudcraft. But Meiyao did. Then she cursed under her breath (something about chipped crystals and rotten wood) and took position just behind him.

Meanwhile he also opened up a mind-link with Daojue, which was also accepted. How bad is it? he asked them both. Daojue didn't answer, but Meiyao did: Four cloudcrafts. There was a sharp ring, and then Jieyuan caught bits of crystal flying past his head. Daojue, Jieyuan realized; he must've shattered a gleamstone projectile with Gleaming End. They were close enough to the Viridian Dome that it swallowed the view, everything ahead a vast, softly glowing expanse of green.

But it was an illusion; its sheer scale rendered distance meaningless. They weren't even at the Ringwood yet. Still several dozen miles to cover. It was absurd, the size of the Viridian Dome. He'd had an idea of it, had seen it in drawings, in maps drawn to scale. But seeing it from this close made it real. Or rather, unreal, completely screwing up his sense of depth and distance. It hardly even looked like a dome anymore; it was more of a wall. A massive, never-ending wall.

"DOWN!" Meiyao suddenly shouted. Jieyuan almost turned back. What? he thought at her. This time she used her mind-link: We can't stay in the sky— LEFT! Jieyuan didn't hesitate, veering the cloud hard. A blinding beam of light screamed past: a line of pure white, cutting a swath through the sky. Jieyuan recognized it. A Radiant Light Blast. Not good. Gleamstone weapons were bad enough, but Daojue could handle them with Gleaming End. But there was no blocking a Radiant Light Blast. It would obliterate them.

Get us lower! Meiyao sent through their mind-link. We can't fly in! Jieyuan didn't ask questions. He angled the cloudcraft down and they started dropping altitude fast. It was then that something appeared in the distance. Glowing dark green spots, stark against the lighter shade of the Viridian Dome. One, two, ten—hundreds—thousands—they poured out from the Dome like a flood. Jieyuan squinted, trying to understand what he was seeing. Then came the screeching.

Ear-splitting, so high and loud they dwarfed the howling of the wind. Thousands of echoing screeches, resonating off each other, rising even higher. The spots grew larger and larger by the second, larger and clearer. And then Jieyuan saw them clearly. Birds. Massive, winged beasts, each one easily three times the size of a man, with glowing feathers, beaks, and talons.