“I’ll stop it,” Tou He, by his side, announced. The ex-monk lowered his borrowed staff, tottering forward before firming his stance.
Before Wu Ying could object, the taotei launched itself at them. Tou He jumped too, staff at first sliding through his front arm before he finished throwing his backhand forward, both arms exchanging places as the monk’s body stretched. It was a perfect motion, a perfect attack. It struck the jumping creature’s lower body and sent Tou He flying backward into the ground as his attack rebounded.
The monster’s motion paused for a fraction of a second, giving Wu Ying time to focus his next attack. The second form of the Sword’s Truth, an attack that combined the Dragon’s Breath and the lunge. It was the same attack, the same motion physically. But unseen was the way Wu Ying channeled his chi. It flowed, just as he had done with the formation flags, out of his body, flooding the sword in his hand and combining with the metal chi in the bracer. It all concentrated, focused on the tip of his sword and held close by Wu Ying’s aura, which had extended itself to the sword.
The attack transcended what a mere Body Cultivator could perform. It was meant for those in the Energy Storage stage. Understanding and wielding the deeper meaning of the weapon, combining it with the chi of his body, and sending it in a single, focused beam of energy.
The attack ripped apart the air as it crossed the distance to the taotei and dug into its wounded side. The wound tore open, the beam of sword chi cutting through skin and muscles, tearing at veins and tendons. Then it petered out as Wu Ying and the bracer ran out of energy. The cultivator swayed even as the taotei, flinching in surprise, landed off-target.
A knee gave way, then another, and Wu Ying caught himself on the ground with the tip of his sword. He braced himself against the weapon, raising his head with great effort to see the bleeding and angry monster stagger back to its feet.
“Not enough,” Wu Ying said to himself dispiritedly. “Not strong enough.”
The taotei shook itself as it turned to Wu Ying, fixing him with a malicious gaze. It roared at the insignificant insect who swayed from the rotting breath. Rather than die on his knees, Wu Ying attempted to stand, failing the first and second time before he managed to rise while leaning on his planted weapon.
“Maybe I could make it choke on me?” Wu Ying said half-heartedly.
He looked around. Chao Kun was still staggering over, already half-dead. Tou He lay on the ground, twitching as his body suffered from the attacks. The cauldron lay unmoving, Liu Tsong trapped within. Elder Wei coughed blood, her body and meridians damaged. All the other cultivators were down or, like Wu Ying, barely able to stand.
Turning once more to the slavering monster that stalked forward with its ungainly, injured gait, Wu Ying dug deep, finding an ounce more of stubbornness, and drew his sword from the ground.
Time to die.
Chapter 23
Time to die. Wu Ying felt the words resound in his mind as he stared at the demon as it jumped, its mouth open wide. Rows of razor-sharp fangs, a couple bent askew from Wu Ying’s punch, closed in on him. The cultivator raised his weapon, the blade of the jian at his eyes as he readied himself to use the Dragon Stretches in reverse. A reverse lunge, putting his jian down the monster’s throat. It was an attack he was unlikely to survive, but perhaps he could force it away. Hard to eat when you had a metal rod stuck down your throat.
Time stretched, fractions of a second elongating into eternity as the creature flew closer. Eternity in a breath. Wu Ying found himself staring into the creature’s nostrils, spotting the black hairs within. Saliva fell, gravity taking forever to act as black blood sprayed behind. Time stretched, till it did not.
Now.
Wu Ying’s back leg extended, gravity dropping his body faster than any muscle could. Lead hand stretched forward to pierce the demon’s mouth. Stretched into the mouth, even as it closed.
Then the body shifted. The mouth, which was meant to close around Wu Ying, moved aside, a ripple of flesh and teeth shoved aside as Wu Ying watched. Even if everything felt as if it was moving like molasses, Wu Ying had no time, no ability to shift the angle of his sword. He cursed mentally as he saw his final attack go awry.
And then time sped up.
The taotei, about to land and swallow him whole, was blown away. A golden body flashed by, following the fist that had struck the demon. Together, the two tumbled into the distance, kicking up dirt and destroying the precious kurinji bushes.
Wu Ying, having exhausted his mind and energy with that last motion, collapsed. He lay there, too drained to move, as the sounds of battle resounded through the meadow. Having overdrawn his body and will, his consciousness faded for a few minutes.
When he woke, Wu Ying found a sliver of energy had returned. He struggled to his knees and found a delicate helping hand pulling him the rest of the way up. Wu Ying looked at the hand to see the entire limb heavily bandaged in familiar green cloth.
“We did it,” Wu Ying said after he caught his breath. He idly noted his bare feet had stopped bleeding, the torn flesh crusted over. The pain radiated, but it was no worse than the strain in his meridians.
“We did,” Liu Tsong said, looking into the distance.
Wu Ying followed her gaze to catch sight of the battle. A familiar dented and lopsided cauldron floated in the air, occasionally dipping down to strike at the lurching monster. Spikes of hardened earth and stone erupted from the ground, tearing into the demon’s body, while pits opened up beneath the monster, disrupting its balance. Disdaining such petty tactics, Elder Po stood in front of the demon spirit and lashed out with fist and feet, each blow so powerful it rippled outward and made loose earth dance.
Seeing the battle well in hand, Wu Ying searched for Li Yao’s form. He frowned, not spotting it where it had fallen. He took a tottering step, only for Liu Tsong to catch his arm and turn Wu Ying. By the remnants of the cauldron fire, a makeshift first-aid station had been created. Ru Ping, Chao Kun, and a few less-injured cultivators worked on those still unconscious. Those included, to Wu Ying’s relief, both Tou He and Li Yao. As Liu Tsong had Wu Ying pointed in the right direction, she guided the exhausted cultivator over.
“Should we not help them?” Wu Ying said, trying to turn his head back toward where the Elders fought.
“Help them?” Liu Tsong said with a laugh in her voice. “How?”
As if to punctuate her words, another concussive blast of air washed over the pair, making them stumble. A painful roar erupted from the beleaguered taotei before a hacking, liquidy cough followed.
“Point taken. Were they always this strong?” Wu Ying said.
The difference between Elder Po, Elder Li, and Elder Wei was even more marked. Elder Wei could only provide support at this moment, her wobbling cauldron dipping down to smash the taotei when an opportune moment came up.
“Elder Po is a semi-martial specialist. Much like you and Tou He,” Liu Tsong said. “Once they broke through to peak Core, my Master was bound to be left behind. She, like me, does not specialize in hitting people.”
“And a single in-stage cultivation growth was this great?”
“Of course. Each stage adds a new layer to a cultivator’s Core. Each layer in a cultivator’s Core protects their soul and reinforces their meridians, allowing one to increase the amount of chi they wield. As each layer goes on top of the next, each increase is bigger than the next.”
“Right…” Wu Ying said. It was not as if he had not known that, in theory, but having it explained to him and seeing the effects were somewhat different.
Strength.
They had it. And he, still, did not. Wu Ying found he desperately wanted it. Not because he wanted to hurt someone, not because he had a contest to win or even to protect another. Wu Ying found himself desiring strength to have choice. More choices than the ones he had found himself faced with. Be eaten while facing the monster coming for you and your friends. Or run and be eaten anyway. Those were unpalatable choices.