“Mmm?” Shadow intoned the unworded question, her back resting against the skytree; her silhouette almost blending in with the shadows that were naturally coalescing around near the base of the tree.
“Why did Master enter the Gorge of Death?” Yanyue asked the question, one she had asked twice before only to receive the same reply.
“I do not know,” Shadow replied plainly, her tone carrying none of the concern that prickled at Yanyue’s heart.
Yanyue allowed a soft sigh to escape her, before she shook her head gently. Worrying would do her no good, she knew that. Cultivators were not allowed to worry about matters that were outside their scope of influencing.
For worry lead to heart demons and that was an insidious malady that not even the rarest spiritual herb or the most profound alchemic pill could cure.
“But…,” Shadow added, causing Yanyue to angle her gaze in her direction. “You do not need to worry.”
Yanyue’s expression remained blank for a few long moments, before she blinked repeatedly in surprise. Had her Senior Sister sensed her unease and was trying to reassure her?
Had Senior Sister Shadow changed so much in merely a year’s passing?
“Why?” Yanyue could not help but ask, before her willpower could rein in that curiosity.
“You do not understand the old man yet,” Shadow replied after a moment with a casualness that was unlike her usual demeanor. “When people think him to be rash, he is the most thoughtful.”
Yanyue offered a single nod in response, if only because she felt like she did not understand her Senior Sister’s words enough to justify further conversation.
Both of them sank back into contended silence, taking in the serene calm of the picturesque scenery ensconcing them— resting after a three hour long training session that mostly involved Yanyue’s Senior Sister impressing upon her the importance of knowing how to defend herself with her Water Qi.
A lesson that was drilled into her as Shadow bypassed her guard time after time with just her Shadow Qi empowered speed and martial arts alone, instead of gracing her with offensive use of it.
Ever since the day Yanyue had been introduced to the skytree, she had fallen in love with the ancient tree. Listening to the song of the wind had become a by-weekly passtime and more recently, an escape from her worries.
Chun Zeizhong felt uneasy as he circled the skytree’s periphery for a third time. He was no more than an ordinary Inner Sect Disciple taking a contemplative walk around the skytree, as many disciples normally did.
Except today, there was a difference. Eleven faces that he did not recognize. Eleven faceless.
He had not underestimated the Grand Patriarch, after all. Then, were the Noble Houses and him really in dispute all these years, or had it all been a front? Uncovering one plan would only lead to the inception of another, as Chun Zeizhong was realizing.
Had the handler’s words really been truthful?
He found himself entertaining dangerous, treasonous thoughts as the moment where his calculations would finally grant him a result, though if it would be erring or unerring was yet to be seen.
Had the two other spies really died? Or was his assassination attempt a foil for the real assassination?
Speculation would get him nowhere, Chun Zeizhong knew.
In truth, it was overhearing the two disciple’s words that had caused this hesitation to bloom in his heart.
‘When people think him to be rash, he is the most thoughtful.’
It was as if Grand Patriarch Yao Shen’s disciple had spoken those words just for him, as if she had already seen through his plans and was warning him against acting upon them.
‘Preposterous thoughts,’ Chen Zeizhong chided himself as he continued walking forward at an unhurried pace.
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The alliance with Meili Zhu’s faceless and Zhou Hui. Eleven faceless guards deployed brazenly in plain sight. The sweep of two Nascent Souls’ divine sense running across the vista, known to him only by virtue of the armband he wore. A specialized artifact meant to detect prying via divine sense.
That was indeed, most careful.
In truth, it was better than he could have hoped for.
At this distance, he could kill the mere foundation establishment disciple before she had even the time to react. Neither Zhou Hui nor Meili Zhu would be able to prevent such a sudden betrayal, either.
And if their goal was truly to protect Yao Shen’s disciples, then the strongest among them would not pursue him.
Where there lay one assassin in hiding, who knew how many others lurked in the shadows?
The only possibility that prickled at him was an unlikely one.
What if the Patriarch was even more thorough in his preparations than him.
Then, he lightly shook his head.
‘Talented and powerful, he might be. But the demonic path has more methods than the world has hues and Yao Shen cannot possibly guard against them all,’ He reminded himself as his thoughts drifted to the pill that pulsated with power, nestled between his tongue and the roof of his mouth.
What a moment it would be.
He, Chun Zeizhong, had no enmity against Yao Shen. But the same could not be said about the Legacy Families, they who zealously guarded their power and crushed those that shone too brightly without refusing to bend.
If Yao Shen and their goals were aligned, then he had brought it upon himself.
Chun Zeizhong swallowed the pill.
Power.
Terrible power flooded Chun Zeizhong’s meridians with such a wild influx of Qi that it could barely flow through his body without crippling him at the outset.
His Core was overloaded in an instant, as Qi a hundred times more potent than his own flooded it.
It crumbled and shattered, or perhaps shattered and crumbled, but Chen Zeizhong felt no pain. He should have been a cripple, but instead he found that every inch of his body was suffused with a Qi so potent that it would have been accurate to say that he had become more a construct of Qi than a man.
This was what he had been seeking.
He understood, in that moment, why the Legacy Families were the way they were. Such power, such ludicrous power!
He would want to zealously safeguard it too, for the sole reason of letting his descendants experience it.
He shot forward with frightening speed, the Wind at his back aiding him like never before. To his surprise, a loyal faceless— one who had been closest to him before his transformation, his ascension, managed to throw himself in his path, with his blade held defensively before him.
Chun Zeizhong could not help but feel a flicker of respect for the unnamed faceless that threw himself in his path, but that did not stop his Wind Qi empowered blade from slashing outwards.
The faceless was bisected cleanly in half, the wind whisking away his remains in two different directions.
Two flares of Nascent Soul level Qi erupted from two different directions but it was of no import— they were already too late.
A third flare of potent Core Formation Shadow Qi erupted from before him as Shadow had barely managed to react to his speed, flinging herself into a forward charge before bringing herself to a stop mid-way.
The reaction had been instinctive, but the pause had been deliberate.
That would have been a cause for concern if the traitor did not think like a traitor— why would Yao Shen’s most prized true disciple give her life for a mere honorary disciple?
‘Good,’ He thought, having no qualms with Shadow’s decision to keep out of the battle. ‘He had no enmity against either of them, it was merely a task he had to accomplish to buy his place in the demonic path. ‘Her senses are so insignificant she hasn’t even noticed yet!’
A crazed grin appeared on Chun Zeizhong’s visage, twisting his features into the ugly truth behind the facade. There was no need for caution now, for the prize was already his.
At this speed and distance, only a Soul Emperor could stop him from killing Yanyue.
Only then did six circular runes blaze to life on the form-fitting breastplate and gauntlets that she concealed beneath her robes.
Four facing forward, two behind.
Standing atop of the mountain, Chun Zeizhong glanced upon the heavens gazing down at him with mockery.
“What in the heaven’s—-,” He uttered in protest as he tried to cut off the wind Qi empowering his momentum, only to confront a knowledge he had already calculated. His control over the torrential Qi was too lacking to even change directions, let alone halt his momentum.
But… he had stopped.
His trembling gaze angled downwards, only to discover something far worse than he had anticipated.
Four fist sized holes punched into his chest and abdomen, perfectly circular in nature.
The traitor Chun Zeizhong was denied even a final, defiant chuckle as he collapsed backwards—- dead before he hit the ground.
‘Hybrid Lumenite Armor— Rune of Focus,’ Shadow thought, shaking her head.
It was good that she didn’t have to kill the poor fool herself, for her Master would be angry if she broke the seal on her cultivation.