Fate Unraveled

CHAPTER

23

CROSSING REALMS

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Jieyuan had headed straight back to their initial location after his fight with Sunqiu, and seeing Daojue’s fight with Qingshi hadn’t ended yet, he’d stayed to the side, beside a gleamstone tree and out of sight. From his position, he’d also been able to observe Meiyao’s fight further ahead, also ongoing.

Neither Daojue nor Meiyao would have appreciated him butting into their fights, so he’d stayed put, but kept a close watch on both, his attention split between the two battles.

Gleaming End made Qingshi’s fight with Daojue a curious one. Qingshi could only avoid the spear. If he tried to parry, the spear would cleave straight through his sword. That left Qingshi mostly on the defensive, weaving in between Daojue’s attacks and going for quick, snappy strikes when an opportunity presented itself. Chroma-sight probably helped him here, which Jieyuan imagined allowed Qingshi to track Gleaming End’s movements even better than an eye could.

But as interesting as Daojue’s fight with Qingshi was, it’d been Meiyao’s fight with Liangjie that Jieyuan had been most interested in. While Meiyao did not glow green as she had when he’d seen her fight the wolf, she’d had that same reddish haze around her. One that was, in fact, similar to Qingshi’s chroma-sight that surrounded Qingshi and Daojue. With the two in his line of sight like this, he even wondered whether Meiyao was using chroma-sight too.

When he paid more attention to the haze around Meiyao and Sunqiu, though, he found it was too dull and too dim to be physicalized ambient chroma, too far off from the ten chromal shades of red. And even though it wasn’t all that visible, it was still much more so than Qingshi’s chroma-sight. And while Qingshi’s haze surrounded him, Jieyuan soon realized that Meiyao’s haze surrounded not her but her opponent, Liangjie.

Curiously, Liangjie seemed to grow slower as the fight wore on, and it wasn’t long after Jieyuan arrived that Meiyao managed to sink her blade into the inner disciple’s chest. What Meiyao did next only reinforced his belief that it wasn’t chroma Meiyao’s haze was made from. She’d drawn open her glyph-stretch pouch, and the red haze had flowed inside it as though being sucked through a funnel. Had it been chroma, Meiyao would’ve simply drawn it back into her soul.

Meiyao had then made her way over, before stopping some ways off much like he had upon seeing Daojue and Qingshi still fighting. Jieyuan hadn’t needed to wait long before she spotted him. She’d stilled, and they’d met eyes in silent understanding. She stayed on her side and he on his, watching Qingshi and Daojue fight, neither of them interfering.

Daojue and Qingshi had seemed to be about evenly matched, but Jieyuan would have given Daojue the edge despite his lower soulsign. While neither had drawn blood, Daojue had managed a few glancing attacks that had torn holes in Qingshi’s robes, whereas Daojue’s were pristine. In a battle of attrition, no third-sign—not even one like Daojue—would be able to match a fifth-sign, but all Daojue needed was to get one hit in with Gleaming End, and it’d be the end of it. Jieyuan had also been sure that Daojue had a realmskill up his sleeves, and Gleaming End would have at least one prime gear-skill. All in all, everything pointed toward Daojue winning much as he and Meiyao had, even more so since Gleaming End had ensured Qingshi could only remain on the defensive.

Then Qingshi had gone and done that.

Qingshi was well out of the range of Jieyuan’s soulsense, but Jieyuan had known that something was wrong when after Daojue had jumped back of all sudden—and wasn’t that another puzzle—Qingshi didn’t give chase and only stared at his teammate. Qingshi’s following words had gone on to confirm Jieyuan’s suspicion that something was wrong indeed.

Qingshi’s comments on Daojue not paying attention had given him a pause—from Jieyuan’s position he couldn’t really see Daojue’s face, and to him, it’d seemed like Daojue was properly engaged in the fight—but what Qingshi said at the end made him forget everything else.

Qingshi was a sixth-sign. Jieyuan wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with the idea of soulsign masking—all it took was layering your soul with a layer of lower-density chroma and reducing the emanation of your aura. It was a straightforward chroma technique, but one mostly used for infiltration, with no potential for combat, so Jieyuan hadn’t bothered learning it. If anything, he’d barely even thought of it again after he’d learned about it. Maintaining the chroma mask around your soul would take up concentration, and lowering the potency of your aura would obviously reduce your power, so it’d only get in the way of combat. Jieyuan didn’t really fancy wasting his time learning something that’d make him weaker.

When Qingshi lunged at Daojue again, resuming the fight, it was with a great deal more attention that Jieyuan observed the fight. Now he had his spear tightly gripped and his feet light on the ground, ready for intervening.

Qingshi had already been fast as a fifth-sign, distinctly faster than Sunqiu had been. And now he was even faster. Not overly so—the power increase from fifth-sign to sixth-sign wasn’t that significant—but still noticeably so. A sixth-sign’s time-warp allowed Qingshi to experience time twice as fast as them, who were at third-sign.

Being at sixth-sign also meant that Qingshi’s chromal weight was exactly double Daojue’s now, so any realmskills Daojue had been holding back wouldn’t be effective anymore. That left Daojue only with Gleaming End’s prime gear-skill, whatever it was—and Jieyuan wasn’t even sure if Daojue could use it.

Daojue put up a good fight. Jieyuan found himself echoing Qingshi’s earlier words and sentiments on Daojue’s ability. He’d been painfully aware for a while now that Daojue was good, absurdly so. If anything, he considered Daojue his yardstick—the one to beat. And his constant simulated deaths at Daojue’s hand sure helped drive in that point.

Now, though? Now Jieyuan realized that Daojue had been holding back on him. That none of the fights so far had been enough to really push Daojue, not even his solo fight against the gleam wolf.

And he also understood what Qingshi meant about Daojue being distracted, about Daojue not putting his all into the fight.

“There we go,” Qingshi said. Before he’d revealed his true soulsign, Qingshi had been entirely silent, solemn. That wasn’t the case anymore.

Qingshi just barely managed to dodge a stab from Gleaming End that’d have gone through his neck. The prime disciple didn’t seem perturbed in the slightest as he drew closer to Daojue’s guard and let loose a storm of stabs. “Yes, yes! This is it. You’re focused now, aren’t you? Come on, Daojue. Show me. Show me what you can do.”

Qingshi was fully on the offensive now. Gleaming End didn’t pose as much of a threat to the inner disciple now, with how fast he was moving. But Qingshi wasn’t the only one who’d gotten faster. As Daojue avoided Qingshi’s blurring attacks, he moved faster than Jieyuan had ever seen before. So fast Jieyuan reckoned his teammate would have been evenly matched in speed with Sunqiu, whose time-warp was greater by more than half. Jieyuan didn’t think it was even possible for a third-soul to be that fast.

Jieyuan had suspected Daojue had a realmskill ever since he’d shown an utter lack of interest in Rongkai’s violet skill seed. Daojue had never given any indication of using it, though, so Jieyuan couldn’t even guess at what it might be. Now, though? Now he was starting to suspect that it might have to do with speed, somehow. Maybe it increased the time-warp of Daojue’s stilled-space, or allowed him to react faster, or anything to that effect.

Because if Daojue wasn’t using some kind of power to increase his speed? If that was his actual speed as a third-sign redsoul? Then Jieyuan wasn’t even sure Daojue could be considered human anymore.

Daojue made ample use of that speed to weave himself in between Qingshi’s attacks, almost like he was predicting them, and stab back. In his past few simulated fights with Daojue, Jieyuan had managed to get in a couple of blows before he was cut down. He suspected that if he were to go for a simulation now, though, he’d be killed pretty much on the spot.

“You truly are something else, aren’t you?” Qingshi called out as Daojue’s onslaught forced him into the back feet. But Qingshi evaded it all, and all it took was for him to slip into Daojue’s guard once to break Daojue’s momentum as Daojue was forced to bring his spear back to block the thrust. And then it was Qingshi’s turn to barrage Daojue with attacks.

Jieyuan tensed. Ludicrously talented and skilled as Daojue was, Qingshi was plenty talented and skilled himself. Not at the same level as Daojue, but enough so that with the gap between third-sign and sixth-sign, the prime disciple had the upper hand. Although the flow of the fight seemed to be constantly shifting like they were taking turns at holding the advantage, Jieyuan would say that Daojue was at his limit right now—while Qingshi could spare the time and attention to make comments like that.

Stepping out of the way of a thrust, Daojue arced Gleaming End into a sweeping strike at Qingshi’s side. Just as it seemed like a reversal was incoming and Qingshi would take up the defensive again, Qingshi managed to twist his body out of the way of the attack. And Daojue was unable to bring Gleaming End back in time as Qingshi thrust his sword at Daojue’s side.

Daojue pulled back immediately.

“Would you look at that,” Qingshi said. He didn’t give chase, and instead held his sword out in front of him. There was blood gleaming on its tip, shimmering in the spectral lights of the Gleamstone Forest. “First blood is mine.”

There wasn’t much blood on the sword, and all of it was near the tip. The stab mustn't have been deep. And as Jieyuan inspected Daojue in turn, although he couldn’t see the wound, he also noticed that the robe around where Qingshi had struck didn’t seem any darker, so the wound was definitely superficial. But it was still first blood.

Qingshi managed to step into Daojue’s guard after dodging a sweeping strike from Gleaming End, before landing a stab on Daojue’s side. Daojue pulled back immediately, so it was unlikely to be a serious wound. But it still meant first blood was Qingshi’s. And in a fight that had been going on for so long.

Jieyuan hesitated, then, whether to intervene. He crossed eyes with Meiyao again, on the other side, and she shook her head at him. So he stayed back, watching.

If the wound affected Daojue any, the man didn’t show it. If anything, Daojue struck at Qingshi even faster, even fiercer. Daojue’s spearsmanship was heavy and entirely offensive. All about momentum, low-stanced, favoring thrusts but also making use of sweeping cuts. Regimented—Daojue snapped from form to form in clearly practiced moves, no impromptu, instinctive fighting, every move clearly trained and intentional. Clean, too—no feints, no subterfuge, just pure offense. It was a perfect match for a weapon that couldn’t be blocked like Gleaming End.

But Qingshi was fluid and seemed to favor a flexible, reactive style that was a perfect match for Daojue’s. And now that he had the definite edge on speed, he was making ample use of it.

Second blood wasn’t a long time coming, and it was Qingshi. A stab on Daojue’s left shoulder. And this time, as Qingshi pulled back his sword, Jieyuan saw red on the blade, while the cloth on Daojue’s shoulder immediately darkened. Daojue’s left arm dropped to the side, limp.

Jieyuan didn’t hesitate. He launched himself toward the two. From the other side, Meiyao did the same. Qingshi didn’t press his advantage, jumping back just as he and Meiyao arrived at Daojue’s side.

“Ah. I see Liangjie and Sunqiu didn’t manage to hold you two back for long,” Qingshi said. He didn’t seem surprised in the least to see them. But while he affected that same pleasant, easy tone, it sounded a bit tighter now, like it was forced. “Normally, I wouldn’t have appreciated you two intruding, but I’ve already taken my… measure against Daojue, so I’ll overlook it this once. This also saves me the time of going after you two later.”

Jieyuan narrowed his eyes at Qingshi. The prime disciple didn’t seem as at ease now as he’d been before, but it wasn’t wariness he was getting from him. More like bitterness. Or maybe even disappointment.

Neither Daojue nor Meiyao seemed particularly interested in engaging Qingshi with anything other than weapons. Daojue’s left arm was still dangling by his side, probably useless, but his teammate’s impression was impassive, and he was holding his spear firmly enough with his right one as he stared stonily at Qingshi. Meiyao opted for a glare as she brandished her saber.

Jieyuan was of a slightly different mind. He cleared his throat. “Say, before you kill us and all, would you mind terribly telling us why you’re after us? Weiming and Sunqiu weren’t all that forthcoming. That, and they really didn’t seem to know much.”

Qingshi curled his lips up, amused. “And what makes you think I’ll be? Or that I know any more than they did?”

“The fact you were ordering Sunqiu and Liangjie around. That you knew about Weiming when they didn’t. That you knew about the cave when they didn’t. That you…” Jieyuan shrugged. “Well, I think you’ve got it.”

He could feel Meiyao’s glare on him, but he paid it no mind, wholly focused on Qingshi. He doubted Qingshi would actually reveal anything—but if he did? That was profit. And this would also let Daojue recover a little, though Jieyuan wasn’t sure how much help that’d be.

“I do, yes. And yes, I do know more than they did,” Qingshi replied. “However, I’m afraid I have no intention to be any more… forthcoming, as you put it, than they were. It’d be rude of me to deprive you of your mystery.”

Before Jieyuan could reply, Qingshi shot toward them. Meiyao was immediately in front of them, and she was the one who met the attack. But unlike with Gleaming End, Qingshi didn’t need to avoid her saber like a plague. Blades met. Jieyuan immediately circled to the side, Daojue doing the same in the other direction. In a blurry movement, much faster than Sunqiu had been, so much so that Jieyuan marveled at how Daojue had held his own against it, Qingshi pulled his sword back and followed with a thrust targeting Meiyao’s chest.

Jieyuan stabbed with his spear at the same time as Daojue did. In another unnatural show of speed, Qingshi whipped his upper body out of the way of Gleaming End’s strike, even as he brought his sword to the side and deflected Jieyuan’s own stab. He then sent a sweeping strike at Meiyao, who stepped out of the way. Without stopping, Qingshi rotated his body along with his missed attack and advanced, this time in Daojue’s direction.

Qingshi had his back to him now, and Jieyuan immediately stabbed at it—only for Qingshi to side-step it like he had eyes on his back. It was then Jieyuan remembered how exactly it was that Qingshi saw. And realized that if there was one person meant to fight multiple enemies at the same time, it was the one with a comprehensible, three-dimensional view of the battlefield.

It didn’t matter who Qingshi was facing, he’d be paying attention to what all three of them were doing, would know every little movement they made.

Qingshi wasn’t talking anymore, taunting or otherwise. He was between the three of them now, at any given moment moving in response to three separate opponents. And even between the three of them, they failed to land a hit. Even with Meiyao’s saber and Gleaming End stabbing and hacking at him, Qingshi remained entirely unharmed.

And this was a sixth-sign. Granted, a very skilled one, and one unusually suited to fighting a group, but still a sixth-sign. If a sixth-sign was already like this, what was fighting a tenth-sign like? It was only now that it dawned on him how grossly he’d been overestimating himself and his team earlier—and severely underestimating the enemy—when he’d been entertaining the idea of facing a tenth-sign. Of facing multiple tenth-signs.

Qingshi bounded back. It happened so suddenly he barely noticed it. One moment he’d been between them, shifting between their attacks, and then he was shooting back through the air. Before they could give chase—or even wonder whether giving chase was a good idea and if they weren’t better off using Meiyao’s remaining Radiant Light Haven talisman and running off—a voice cut through the clearing, sounding from above.

“Qingshi?”

It was a woman’s voice, but not Meiyao’s. Though still one Jieyuan recognized. One he was sure all four of them did. Qingshi had his head up, focused on the skies. So did Jieyuan and his teammates.

Floating in the air between two gleamstone trees, near the canopy of crystal leaves, was a cloudcraft. And on it was Yunzhu, in sapphire robes but covered in rubies.