El’s excitement was infectious and I was nearly convinced to leave before dark but I was in no sort of hurry and after getting into the sect with such little hassle, I was hesitant to give up the opportunity all because we could not wait for the most opportune time.
We cultivated for a while just to pass the time, I was unable to make it any further up the sprouted mountain, so I did my best to comprehend it. It was not a structure that I was expecting, it was a little embarrassing to be stumped practising a technique that I authored but being humbled was part of learning and I was glad to experience it again after so many years.
Eventually an impatient El sat roughly on my crossed legs. I opened my eyes and observed that she had sat down facing me rather than away. She planted a kiss on my nose. “Please, can we go now?”
I leaned my head to the side to look out the window and to her credit, it was dark… Just about. “Let’s go.” She jumped excitedly out of my lap and ran to the door where she waited for me, probably remembering her role as a servant and not wanting to be caught outside on her own without good reason.
“Young master, please hurry.” I sighed and straightened my robe. It seemed she had taken a liking to referring to me in such a way and telling her not to do so would undoubtedly be wasted effort.
We cracked the door and peeked outside. Seeing no one walking through the wide gardens we both tip-toed out. We retraced the footsteps of our earlier excursion with Maddy and eventually found the banquet hall. The illusion was just up ahead and shared the exact same properties as the one in the lake.
“They definitely tell people that illusions are not honourable so that they can hide this.” Remarked El as I came to a halt.
“Undoubtedly.” I peeled the illusion back, I didn’t want to collapse the whole thing but merely walking through the illusion would cause us great amounts of confusion and therefore it had to be disabled somewhat.
Many people supposed an illusion was merely a mirage and they are at the start, but they quite quickly become a lot more. Walking into a higher level illusion was a rapid method of losing oneself.
Instead I parted the illusion just enough to slide through then sewed it back together as if we were never there, rather than tampering with the inside of the illusion I merely meddled with the gateway so that it did not function to bring us to whatever trap it contained.
After my work was done I turned to see what exactly was so important that it needed to be concealed.
A path of light grey stone parted scorched grass. We walked forward to the point where even the stones themselves were charred and cracked. I thought for a second that the illusion was simply covering up the site of an attack on the sect until we came upon a hut and the array link stopped. It opened up into another partial array and just like the others, I had no idea its purpose.
The hut, rather confoundingly, looked entirely undamaged. Rather, it looked to have been built recently. There were no signs of age on the building at all.
I was about to say something but El had already opened the door. It was definitely different to Safi’s more tentative approach to Teteli’s hut.
It was dark inside and El channeled some qi into her hand in the shape of a small diamond. It cast light across the room and revealed to us a rather disturbing fact.
We shared a room with a hefty slab of creature appendage. It looked to be a tail.
El jumped back with a small squeal. The power emanating from the morsel was overpowering, we both had to step outside to catch our breath. Looking in from the safety of the outdoors, it was definitely a tail. A pitch black tail decorated with a strange pattern of swirls.
“Why?” Was all that El could muster.
“There are many things that can be done with a severed body part of a powerful creature. I won’t pretend to know exactly what is going on here though.”
I was glad that my mouth was behaving but as I spoke my head filled with ludicrous ideas. Even more terrifyingly than that, the unstoppable urge to cause mischief made itself known once again. It seemed the same urge filled Eleb as I could see her watching me with hopeful eyes that we would not simply turn away from the mystery hut.
After being robbed of multiple opportunities to cause trouble within such a pompous sect, I caved to the temptation. I may have lacked the knowledge about constructing arrays but tearing them down was something every cultivator needed to know about.
I was safe in the knowledge that I could hide myself and El from anything that might show up once the deed was done, I started the process.
“Stay outside the hut… okay? She agreed, a nervous smile on her face. The smile of a bad influence.
I walked back inside and waded through the miasma created by the mutilated tail. Murky qi that threatened to drown me in its power. I was prepared for it this time and employed a well known strategy of diversion, the qi had no will of its own and was therefore quite easy to redirect. Had the rest of the creature been standing before me then it would be an entirely different story.
My technique of disabling the array was simple in theory. Remove the tail from the premises. Whether it was going to be that easy in practice, I was about to find out.
I reached for the tail and grasped the thickest part. It was a large limb and certainly too heavy for me to carry and so I was degraded to dragging it, quite unceremoniously, from the centre of the array.
As I passed the first threshold I felt an activation of the array. Some sort of signal and I realised that I would have to speed the process up a little bit.
After the second threshold another activation occurred alongside a vicious shockwave that obliterated the hut and sent me hurtling across the burned grass, I clutched the tail for dear life as it was handily serving as impact absorption.
After finally coming to a halt, I first concealed myself then looked around. Eleb was not a far distance from me but was in much worse shape. I could already see some unnaturally angled limbs.
I dropped the tail and attempted to stand. I realised quickly that my legs, which had taken the brunt of the damage, were not ready for such exertion. The emergence of my bright white shin bone protruding from a sludge of blood and skin told me that I should give up on the idea of using them altogether.
I crawled with just my arms, I got close.
“I swear I just rebuilt that…” A hand reached down and grasped El's arm. “Oh? Human.”
I was concealed but I had not managed to apply the luxury to El.
“Who needs legs anyway?” I asked no one in particular as I cancelled the concealment to reveal my pathetically beaten body.
“What the fuck?” He dropped El. Perfect.
I was still crawling but I managed to look up. “I really hope you’re a bad guy.” I said, much to his confusion.
I wouldn’t need Roshan this time, he was not going to get a chance to retaliate. I channeled Fury of a Gentle Petal. They appeared from within me as if my blood itself manifested to become an army of beautiful red. They gushed and ebbed like a school of fish being startled by a silent predator. In a moment there was beauty and in the next, there was death.
A hundred petals became blades, leaving the man with a hundred holes. Imperceptibly thin, but the blood that came oozing from each betrayed their plenty.
The man took so long to fall to the floor that I had managed to crawl to El and once again conceal myself and this time, crucially, her as well.
The pain in my legs was beginning to roar and I was unsure of how much longer I was going to be able to stay conscious. Unfortunately for me, despite my technique to stay stealthed, I was still right next to a corpse, I would undoubtedly be found if I stuck around.
In a strangely reminiscent situation to my first day as Sen’o I dragged myself, gravely injured, in the hopes of staying alive. This time, however, I did not have the luxury of passing out.
Casualperv Click the
El’s excitement was infectious and I was nearly convinced to leave before dark but I was in no sort of hurry and after getting into the sect with such little hassle, I was hesitant to give up the opportunity all because we could not wait for the most opportune time.
We cultivated for a while just to pass the time, I was unable to make it any further up the sprouted mountain, so I did my best to comprehend it. It was not a structure that I was expecting, it was a little embarrassing to be stumped practising a technique that I authored but being humbled was part of learning and I was glad to experience it again after so many years.
Eventually an impatient El sat roughly on my crossed legs. I opened my eyes and observed that she had sat down facing me rather than away. She planted a kiss on my nose. “Please, can we go now?”
I leaned my head to the side to look out the window and to her credit, it was dark… Just about. “Let’s go.” She jumped excitedly out of my lap and ran to the door where she waited for me, probably remembering her role as a servant and not wanting to be caught outside on her own without good reason.
“Young master, please hurry.” I sighed and straightened my robe. It seemed she had taken a liking to referring to me in such a way and telling her not to do so would undoubtedly be wasted effort.
We cracked the door and peeked outside. Seeing no one walking through the wide gardens we both tip-toed out. We retraced the footsteps of our earlier excursion with Maddy and eventually found the banquet hall. The illusion was just up ahead and shared the exact same properties as the one in the lake.
“They definitely tell people that illusions are not honourable so that they can hide this.” Remarked El as I came to a halt.
“Undoubtedly.” I peeled the illusion back, I didn’t want to collapse the whole thing but merely walking through the illusion would cause us great amounts of confusion and therefore it had to be disabled somewhat.
Many people supposed an illusion was merely a mirage and they are at the start, but they quite quickly become a lot more. Walking into a higher level illusion was a rapid method of losing oneself.
Instead I parted the illusion just enough to slide through then sewed it back together as if we were never there, rather than tampering with the inside of the illusion I merely meddled with the gateway so that it did not function to bring us to whatever trap it contained.
After my work was done I turned to see what exactly was so important that it needed to be concealed.
A path of light grey stone parted scorched grass. We walked forward to the point where even the stones themselves were charred and cracked. I thought for a second that the illusion was simply covering up the site of an attack on the sect until we came upon a hut and the array link stopped. It opened up into another partial array and just like the others, I had no idea its purpose.
The hut, rather confoundingly, looked entirely undamaged. Rather, it looked to have been built recently. There were no signs of age on the building at all.
I was about to say something but El had already opened the door. It was definitely different to Safi’s more tentative approach to Teteli’s hut.
It was dark inside and El channeled some qi into her hand in the shape of a small diamond. It cast light across the room and revealed to us a rather disturbing fact.
We shared a room with a hefty slab of creature appendage. It looked to be a tail.
El jumped back with a small squeal. The power emanating from the morsel was overpowering, we both had to step outside to catch our breath. Looking in from the safety of the outdoors, it was definitely a tail. A pitch black tail decorated with a strange pattern of swirls.
“Why?” Was all that El could muster.
“There are many things that can be done with a severed body part of a powerful creature. I won’t pretend to know exactly what is going on here though.”
I was glad that my mouth was behaving but as I spoke my head filled with ludicrous ideas. Even more terrifyingly than that, the unstoppable urge to cause mischief made itself known once again. It seemed the same urge filled Eleb as I could see her watching me with hopeful eyes that we would not simply turn away from the mystery hut.
After being robbed of multiple opportunities to cause trouble within such a pompous sect, I caved to the temptation. I may have lacked the knowledge about constructing arrays but tearing them down was something every cultivator needed to know about.
I was safe in the knowledge that I could hide myself and El from anything that might show up once the deed was done, I started the process.
“Stay outside the hut… okay? She agreed, a nervous smile on her face. The smile of a bad influence.
I walked back inside and waded through the miasma created by the mutilated tail. Murky qi that threatened to drown me in its power. I was prepared for it this time and employed a well known strategy of diversion, the qi had no will of its own and was therefore quite easy to redirect. Had the rest of the creature been standing before me then it would be an entirely different story.
My technique of disabling the array was simple in theory. Remove the tail from the premises. Whether it was going to be that easy in practice, I was about to find out.
I reached for the tail and grasped the thickest part. It was a large limb and certainly too heavy for me to carry and so I was degraded to dragging it, quite unceremoniously, from the centre of the array.
As I passed the first threshold I felt an activation of the array. Some sort of signal and I realised that I would have to speed the process up a little bit.
After the second threshold another activation occurred alongside a vicious shockwave that obliterated the hut and sent me hurtling across the burned grass, I clutched the tail for dear life as it was handily serving as impact absorption.
After finally coming to a halt, I first concealed myself then looked around. Eleb was not a far distance from me but was in much worse shape. I could already see some unnaturally angled limbs.
I dropped the tail and attempted to stand. I realised quickly that my legs, which had taken the brunt of the damage, were not ready for such exertion. The emergence of my bright white shin bone protruding from a sludge of blood and skin told me that I should give up on the idea of using them altogether.
I crawled with just my arms, I got close.
“I swear I just rebuilt that…” A hand reached down and grasped El's arm. “Oh? Human.”
I was concealed but I had not managed to apply the luxury to El.
“Who needs legs anyway?” I asked no one in particular as I cancelled the concealment to reveal my pathetically beaten body.
“What the fuck?” He dropped El. Perfect.
I was still crawling but I managed to look up. “I really hope you’re a bad guy.” I said, much to his confusion.
I wouldn’t need Roshan this time, he was not going to get a chance to retaliate. I channeled Fury of a Gentle Petal. They appeared from within me as if my blood itself manifested to become an army of beautiful red. They gushed and ebbed like a school of fish being startled by a silent predator. In a moment there was beauty and in the next, there was death.
A hundred petals became blades, leaving the man with a hundred holes. Imperceptibly thin, but the blood that came oozing from each betrayed their plenty.
The man took so long to fall to the floor that I had managed to crawl to El and once again conceal myself and this time, crucially, her as well.
The pain in my legs was beginning to roar and I was unsure of how much longer I was going to be able to stay conscious. Unfortunately for me, despite my technique to stay stealthed, I was still right next to a corpse, I would undoubtedly be found if I stuck around.
In a strangely reminiscent situation to my first day as Sen’o I dragged myself, gravely injured, in the hopes of staying alive. This time, however, I did not have the luxury of passing out.
Casualperv Click the
