Wu Ying nodded, then looked over the map again. If they were never meant to take the city and just serve as a distraction, then…
“What the hell am I doing here?” Wu Ying said softly.
Perhaps not that softly, for Lady Pan shot him a sympathetic gaze. Even Bai Hu ended up offering Wu Ying a condescending smile.
***
Late that evening, Wu Ying was seated cross-legged in his tent. He breathed slowly, churning his chi and parsing the energy that was unaspected, that was empty of influence. Yin fire chi, Yang fire chi, metal aspected and earth aspected, it all flowed around him. As it met his aura, the selectively permeable barrier that he had formed around his body bounced them off, leaving him with just the unaspected chi he needed. In the churning morass of chi from the battle, the cultivators who drew and expelled chi around him, Wu Ying found himself rejecting more than nine parts in ten of the chi that tried to reach him.
At the same time, his body churned, the whirlpool in his dantian pulling at the chi around him, allowing him to keep his cultivation speed, his intake of energy, at a higher level. It was difficult training. Aspected chi slipped in constantly, polluting his meridians and requiring him to cleanse them of their aspects, requiring him to expel them into the air. Yet that too was training.
Each moment, each second of training added to his progress as each drop of energy, of effort, wore away at the barrier that kept him from advancing. Each indrawn portion of chi added to the core that was his dantian, allowing him to compress it further and refine the energy. Each breath built the foundation that he needed to progress. And always, he felt the blockages that stopped him from advancing, a light pressure, an ache deep in his body, in his soul that refused to budge.
He pushed on. Through the pain. Through the failure.
For failure was failure. But it was not permanent. Not so long as one continued to try.
Walls could be worn away. Water, time, energy. Lives. The barriers between one stage to the next might be as impenetrable as the walls that stood before them, but they could be split. Could be forced open.
If one persisted.
Through loss, failure, and pain.
A memory of Bai Hu staggering back to their lines, bleeding. Tears running down his face, his brothers slain and left behind for the worms. Of ordinary soldiers running back to camp to take position in the lines. A soldier late at night, clutching the stump of his hand, chi swirling around his body as enlightenment came in the midst of loss.
Persist.
Through danger, injury, and loss.
One breath, one ounce of chi at a time. Whispered words of remembrance, of promises to return favors and to greet others in the next life. Failure—only when one gave up. For the cycle repeated, rebirth and death, over and over, until one broke it.
By becoming an immortal. Or achieving nirvana.
So you kept training, second after second, moment after moment. Until you died. And started it again.
***
Days later, Wu Ying and the team stumbled back from another attack. They had been sent in as the fourth wave, a commitment of forces twice the number they had done before as another wave had arrived right after them. They had pushed against the walls, clustering under the eaves, attempting to climb to the top while the siege ladders were destroyed via talismans and chi strikes all around them. But rather than give up, the general had ordered hand-held ladders, unused thus far, to be brought and thrown up at various walls. Twice, Wu Ying had had to throw himself off a falling ladder and hit the ground hard, bruising feet and body. Still, it was better than falling still wrapped in the ladder.
For half a day, the army had pushed against the wall, sacrificing numerous bodies and gaining no ground. Thrice, they had taken a portion of the walls just long enough to bring on a few more people before they lost them. Once, they had even had a Core cultivator, a member of the Sect Wu Ying had never met before, standing on the wall. Unfortunately, it seemed that the city had been waiting, for they sent two of their own to do battle. The fight between the three had been enough to clear the wall, destroying portions of the walkway and killing the Elder and one of the other enemy cultivators.
It was not a good trade. Not at all.
Whether the general had decided not to waste any more of his precious Core cultivators or because he felt the attempts to bait out the opposing defenders had been unsuccessful, he had never sent another major power to attack. And so, it was Energy Storage cultivators and regular soldiers who had fought, bled, and died. But that was the way of it. Those who had the most to lose would be put the most at risk.
And it really did not matter. In the end, the general called them back, leaving the walls damaged, the defenders bloodied, but the city untouched. The cheers that roared from the city, the catcalls and the horns had been uncharacteristic of the usually disciplined army of defenders. But Wu Ying could understand their jubilation. Rumors had already spread amongst the State of Shen’s own ranks that the State of Wei’s reserve army was only a week away. The siege was likely to be lifted, for no general would risk his army getting caught between the city, a river, and another army.
Later that night, under the cover of darkness, the siege weapons were rolled closer to the city. Then burning talismans, grouped flasks of oil, and flaming rocks had been tossed into the city, to damage, destroy, and otherwise wreck what they could.
Wu Ying and his team had a good view of all this, for they had been designated to sneak closer to the city ahead of the siege engines. There, under the cover of the assault trenches, his team had hidden. Waiting for the obvious retaliation. The State of Wei could not just let them send rocks and fire into their own city. So while archers imbued arrows and artillery in the city fired back, the gates of the city opened for the first time.
Wu Ying was tempted to dash in, but he knew they were likely looking for some foolhardy attack like that. Also, he wasn’t exactly sure that Yin Xue would have followed him. And while Wu Ying had a rough map of the city, if he went in in the middle of the night, trying to dodge soldiers, he wondered if he could find the location. And Wu Ying had to admit, their current orders were not ones he could in good conscience defy. Never mind the eventual, probably much harsher, punishment but also because he had promised to join the war effort. He too had his own honor. No matter what Li Yao thought.
The team stayed still, waiting for the calvary charge to pass them, watching and restraining their auras as best as they could. Thankfully, for this task, the army had provided them all with talismans that concealed their auras. All but Wu Ying, for his control was sufficient for their needs. As such, the rushing Wei cultivators missed their group, charging directly at the siege weapons that continued to attack the city. And if the soldiers noticed them, a few soldiers looking to launch a surprise attack were less important than destroying the siege engines. In truth, Wu Ying couldn’t blame them. After all, his team wasn’t there to fight the cavalry.
“Here they come!” Li Yao hissed at the group.
She was peeking out the corner of the trenches, staring at another mass of individuals who had left the city after the main charge. Soon, the enemy cultivators split off in different directions to aid the soldiers, moving in small groups. Wu Ying, crouched in the trench, could sense their auras even from here, and he could not help but shake his head. What was it with people and not learning to restrain themselves? Was it a matter of pride?
As they moved forward, barely making a noise, Wu Ying revised his opinion. Of course it was pride.
Still, Wu Ying had to chuckle internally. Their pride made the job easier.
Li Yao gestured at the group, making quick signals to pass on the details she spotted and assigning everyone to their tasks. In short order, the team was ready, weapons drawn and arrows nocked. As Li Yao slowly closed her fingers, the entire group tensed, waiting. When her hand clenched, everyone charged out of the trench. Even Bao Cong jumped out to give himself a better angle of fire.