Rustpen

Chapter 96: BURIED DEAD

CHAPTER

96

BURIED DEAD

JIEYUAN

—∞—

The garden sat on a large, walled-off lot of land, easily covering thrice as much ground as the biggest of the buildings they’d come across so far. The walls were short—barely waist-high—clearly meant more to mark the garden’s boundary than to keep anyone out.

Jieyuan didn’t like it.

Viridian Death City was, despite nature’s best attempts, still a city. It still had the appearance of one, ...

Chapter 95: SWERVE AND CLIMB

CHAPTER

95

SWERVE AND CLIMB

JIEYUAN

—∞—

They headed straight down the root-laden street of the main avenue, past the deformed bridges and growth-filled rivers. Meiyao at the front, Jieyuan by her side, Daojue just behind. Meiyao was the one setting the pace, and it was just shy of cautious, steady but slow.

Jieyuan couldn’t help but notice how her eyes kept flicking from building to building—each one as bent and overgrown as the last. Sh...

Chapter 94: BEATING HEART

CHAPTER

94

BEATING HEART

JIEYUAN

—∞—

When Jieyuan had first glimpsed the city beyond the gate, he’d thought he was looking at ancient ruins, half-swallowed by the wild. Vines and strings, stems and shoots in every shade of green that had ever been spat out by the forests of the world. The buildings themselves looked chewed up and spat back out, twisted and warped, nothing straight or clean left. Broken, decrepit, crumbling.

But Meiyao had ...

Chapter 93: TO HEAD IN

CHAPTER

93

TO HEAD IN

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Jieyuan wasn’t sure which one was the bigger surprise—the sight of the city, or the expanded range of sight.

But he took it all in, standing at the edge of what wasn’t just a pocket of clear mist anymore, but a massive zone—almost like a second dome, except one of clearer mist.

The view didn’t go on without end, though. It didn’t even encompass all of the city. He could see the thicker, dee...

Chapter 92: SEE THE WALL

CHAPTER

92

SEE THE WALL

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Meiyao glanced back, frowning. “What are you—”

“Meiyao, is that man dead?” Jieyuan asked, as plainly and as clearly as he could. Call him jumpy, but he wasn’t taking any chances here.

“Of course he is,” Meiyao said. “Why would you— Oh.” She turned back to the shrub, stared down at it for a moment. Then she nodded at him. “I see it now. But no. He’s dead.”

Her eyes sh...

Chapter 91: IN THE BUSH

CHAPTER

91

IN THE BUSH

JIEYUAN

—∞—

People often spoke of heavenly matches. Matches by the Heavens. When two people, or things, fit together perfectly.

Jieyuan reckoned he’d found one such match.

Death—and the Dome.

He stood still as a statue, halfway through a clearing, his eyes fixed on Meiyao.

She was up ahead, standing at the edge of the pocket.

In front of her, peeking out of the misty curtain, was the head of...

Chapter 90: TAKE A LOOK

CHAPTER

90

TAKE A LOOK

JIEYUAN

—∞—

The revelation hung between them. Lingered, stretching into the silence that followed as her eyes, a green so deep and bright they seemed to glow, stared fixedly into his own.

Jieyuan would’ve liked to say that the rest of her face blurred, turned indistinct, one with the mist, as her gaze swallowed him. That in his head, Meiyao’s words did the same, expanding, swelling, until there was no room left for...

Chapter 89: TALK OF SEEDS

CHAPTER

89

TALK OF SEEDS

JIEYUAN

—∞—

“One of them enhances the body—dexterity, agility, reflexes, flexibility,” Meiyao said. “Divine Primeval Grace. Another, Divine Plant Empathy, lets us read plants on sight—how they grow, what properties they have, how to care for them. Divine Beast Empathy does the same for beasts.”

Divine. That gave Jieyuan a pause. Now there was a word he didn’t hear every day. He only really reco...

Chapter 88: TALK OF BLOOD

CHAPTER

88

TALK OF BLOOD

JIEYUAN

—∞—

“I— There are some things—” Meiyao bit her lip, frowning. “I’ve never liked keeping secrets. Not from people I care about. It always felt… wrong. Because if I keep something from someone, it means I don’t trust them. And that isn’t right— Because, I mean— If I care about them—”

She took a deep breath and fell silent. She looked uncomfortable. Frustrated, even, like she couldn’t...

Chapter 87: A CLOSE BRUSH

CHAPTER

87

A CLOSE BRUSH

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Jieyuan stood just at the edge of the tracks, staring down at the massive footprint.

Meiyao was on the opposite end of the pocket, inspecting the spot where the tracks disappeared into the denser mists beyond.

Jieyuan’s experience with animal footprints was—well, nonexistent. That wasn’t exactly a skill you needed in the city.

He could tell some things, though. First and foremos...

Chapter 86: I’LL HELP YOU

CHAPTER

86

I’LL HELP YOU

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Jieyuan tensed as he went through another mist curtain, eyes already scanning the ground.

Meiyao was calling stops more and more often, almost every other pocket now. They hadn’t come across any beasts yet, but that was just about the only good thing he could say about the situation.

As the mist cleared around him, he just barely managed to find a relatively clear spot to step down into. Then he...

Chapter 85: A NEW USE

CHAPTER

85

A NEW USE

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Meiyao vanished into the mist, leaving behind only the taut rope that linked them.

Jieyuan tensed—but only briefly. He forced himself to move forward, stepping into the denser stretch of mist.

He found his suspicions confirmed. The mist did work on a kind of threshold.

The moment he was through, the space around him opened up more than a dozen feet ahead and across.

Much like the ...

Chapter 84: TO SET OFF

CHAPTER

84

TO SET OFF

JIEYUAN

—∞—

“All right,” Jieyuan said, “here’s how we’re doing this.”

The wall of the Dome was right in front of him, just one step away.

Jieyuan turned back.

Daojue stood behind him, looking on stoically. He was wearing new robes now—though, like Meiyao, he hadn’t changed into inner disciple robes, but instead had on the plain, black robes he’d worn way back in the entrance trial of the Gl...

Chapter 83: DEBTS TO PAY

CHAPTER

83

DEBTS TO PAY

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Jieyuan shut his eyes and fought back the panic. Not just alarm, but full-blown panic—frigid, biting, and rising fast. The kind that tinted everything red, sure as blood in water.

His mind was his greatest asset. He trained his body, honed his technique, tried to get his hands on every bit of power he could find—realmskills, artifacts, and what-have-you. But all of that was only to give himsel...

Chapter 82: WARPED SENSE

CHAPTER

82

WARPED SENSE

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Jieyuan and Meiyao broke through the curtain of green mist and crashed into the ground.

And then they were rolling through the undergrowth, loose branches and brambles crushed underneath

Swirling mist, glowing grass, and moist dirt became the sum of Jieyuan’s world. Meiyao’s hold on him was tight, keeping him pressed against her, and it only made the situation worse. Instinct made Jieyuan let go ...

Chapter 81: CRYSTAL BLOOD

CHAPTER

81

CRYSTAL BLOOD

YUNZHU

—∞—

Yunzhu wasn’t happy.

Yunzhu was, in fact… She tilted her head as she looked inside her, trying to place the emotion. They weren’t easy things, emotions. They often got away from her and did their own things, and it fell onto Yunzhu to pick up the pieces afterward.

But this time around Yunzhu felt she had it figured out.

Aggrieved.

Yes. That was what she felt. Aggrieved.

Chapter 80: PLOT AND PAIN

CHAPTER

80

PLOT AND PAIN

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Jieyuan breathed out slowly. His ribs ached with the motion.

To his left, Meiyao stood perfectly still—and it looked like even that much took everything she had. She was dead on her feet, barely holding herself—and her saber—upright. She wasn’t swaying—not yet—but it looked like a breeze could’ve toppled her over.

Daojue stood to his right, straight-backed, Gleaming End held steady—m...

Chapter 79: NEAR THE GREEN

CHAPTER

79

NEAR THE GREEN

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Meiyao rushed to the front—then shoved Jieyuan aside, forcing him behind her with a strength that surprised him.

Jieyuan almost lost control of the cloudcraft. On instinct, his hand darted out to drag her back—

“NO!” she shouted. “LET ME!”

He froze. Her eyes were shut, her face locked with tension—brows furrowed deep in excruciating concentration, the kind of focus you only saw ...

Chapter 78: UNSAFE BETS

CHAPTER

78

UNSAFE BETS

JIEYUAN

—∞—

As far as Jieyuan knew, nobody had managed to escape on a cloudcraft yet.

They’d barely gotten a dozen feet up when he experienced firsthand why.

The sequence hit—just 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 continui...

Chapter 77: DEEP WITHIN

CHAPTER

77

DEEP WITHIN

JIEYUAN

—∞—

What stood where Daojue had been was not human.

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�...

Chapter 76: STRENGTH AND SPEED

CHAPTER

76

STRENGTH AND SPEED

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Strength could carry you through a fight.

But speed could end it before it even began.

Jieyuan had barely gotten a foot forward when the two tenth-signs came down on him.

The Xiyunfeng spearman charged head-on—spear first, more blur than man. The Gleaming Stone Sect traitor—the swordswoman—veered off left, and came at him from the side in a whirl, her good arm leading, sword swingin...

Chapter 75: BURNING BLOOD

CHAPTER

75

BURNING BLOOD

JIEYUAN

—∞—

The golden drop vanished.

The world ignited.

Power erupted out of the Fatebloom Heart—an overflowing, white-hot wave of it, engulfing him. Liquid light flooding his veins, molten gold surging through his limbs.

The world dropped away. His soulsense overloaded as his body erupted in blinding brilliance, claiming every inch of him, drowning all other sensations.

It was like he’d swallowed a sta...

Chapter 74: BITTER BLOOD

CHAPTER

74

BITTER BLOOD

JIEYUAN

—∞—

There was a famous story back in the sect about Qingshi. Just after he’d joined the sect, there were rumors about how he wasn’t really blind. Not too long later, Qingshi took part in an Inner Court tournament. After defeating the last contestant, he’d turned to the audience and, without a word, removed his blindfold. And proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was.

Now Jieyuan got to see that pro...

Chapter 73: WHY, HELLO

CHAPTER

73

WHY, HELLO

JIEYUAN

—∞—

“It’s a good thing you looked away,” Protector Wanxin said the moment he turned back to her. She smiled slyly, giving him a knowing look. “I know my daughter’s stunning, but if you’d kept it up, I’d have to tattle to Meiyao.”

Jieyuan froze. “That’s…” He knew where the protector was coming from. From what he’d gathered so far, the woman was wholly blind to her daughter’s knack for ...

Chapter 72: LOOK BEHIND

CHAPTER

72

LOOK BEHIND

JIEYUAN

—∞—

A hand fell on Jieyuan’s shoulder.

He turned.

Meiyao stood right next to him, facing him, one eyebrow raised, full lips pressed into a thin line. He might’ve said she looked amused, in a prickly sort of way—if it weren’t for her gaze.

It was deep, unreadable. He could pick out something lying behind her green eyes, but he couldn’t tell what it was.

“I hope I’m not interruptin...

Chapter 71: BROKEN GLIMPSE

CHAPTER

71

BROKEN GLIMPSE

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Daojue should’ve blocked Maeva’s swing, then backstepped to dodge Jieyuan’s follow-up. That was what the sequence dictated.

Instead, Daojue leaned to the side, dodging the swing, and brought Gleaming End down at Jieyuan.

In normal circumstances, in the absence of foresight, Jieyuan would’ve been able to react in time. Daojue gave almost no visual cues, so you had to be ready for anything wh...

Chapter 70: OF TRUMP CARDS

CHAPTER

70

OF TRUMP CARDS

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Jieyuan had only ever seen Daojue bleed once before. In the Gleamstone Valley, fighting Dajinzhi Qingshi.

Now he’d made Daojue bleed—something no one else had managed since Qingshi. He couldn’t see the wound, couldn’t see blood on the blade—but he’d felt it, felt the impact through his soulsense, felt the blade tear into flesh.

If Jieyuan needed any proof he’d made the right call, thi...

Chapter 69: TO DRAW BLOOD

CHAPTER

69

TO DRAW BLOOD

JIEYUAN

—∞—

It worked. Jieyuan had taken Daojue by surprise.

There was no contesting that. Not when Daojue’s eyes widened. Just a fraction, sure, but this was Daojue. A slight flare of his eyes roughly translated to a gasp, a dropped jaw, and a saucer-wide stare rolled into one, by anyone else’s standards.

Problem was, this was Daojue.

Surprising him wasn’t the same as stumping him...

Chapter 68: STRIKE BEHIND

CHAPTER

68

STRIKE BEHIND

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Facing Daojue on a big stage wasn’t some recent idea, some new whim. Jieyuan had been dreaming of a rematch for half a year now—ever since the very first time he met Daojue, on another dueling stage, at the Gleaming Stone Sect’s entrance trials.

Months had passed since then, and that wish had faded into something vaguer. To a simpler, more straightforward desire to surpass Daojue. But the Radiant Go...

Chapter 67: TO PREPARE

CHAPTER

67

TO PREPARE

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Growing up, Jieyuan had gotten lessons on all sorts of things. His old man had arranged for tutors to teach him everything he’d need to take over the family business. When Old Huizhong couldn’t find anyone up to the task, he simply did it himself.

More than once, Jieyuan had sat through lessons on the proper way to break news—to tell someone something important. Those were some of the lessons his fathe...