Sword and Snow

I had been out, trailing a demonic Cultivator for two weeks. I had come across the man in a sleepy little village named Mountain Well, situated near the base of the Onyx Palisades.

The Palisades were an unnatural formation of black rocks that splintered up from the ground to the height of mountains. There were numerous legends that told of how some legendary Cultivator splintered the whole area in a climactic battle of one kind or another, and none of them agreed on who or why.

The Floral Hills Province, where they were located, was not known for its strength. In fact, most of the ambient Qi wasn’t strong enough here to support Cultivators too far beyond the beginning of the Human Realm.

Still, if one traveled half way up any of the spires, the earth and metal Qi were both in good supply. Honestly speaking, they could have still been a fantastic place to gather Qi for my own Core, given my metal affinity.

In any case, while tracking several different rumors, I happened to come across a man in Mountain Well that carried the distinct flavor of a demon. They always had a strange, distinct smell, very similar to that of a wet animal. And that scent permeated their Qi as well.

Unfortunately, anyone who dealt with them regularly could pick up and carry the smell. So, while it wasn’t enough to condemn him, it certainly was enough that I strongly believed he had ties to a demonic sect. Whether it was as a disciple or maybe a passing merchant, I wasn’t sure.

Two weeks of tailing him around the village, and on a few short excursions beyond it hadn’t gotten me anywhere. However, on day sixteen, the man packed up for a longer trip and headed into the Palisades.

The climb wasn’t all that difficult, especially for a well trained Cultivator. While it was possible he would notice my tailing him, I wasn’t particularly worried about an ambush; while tailing the man in the village, I was able to get a rough idea of his strength, and would place him well below me.

Eventually, he split off from the obvious trail to follow what looked more like a game trail. However, the displaced branches and disturbed ground had a strange unnatural bent to it. It was likely that it was marked by human hands to make it easier to follow.

And it led us straight to what I was hunting.

As we approached the secluded sect’s walls, I made sure to reign in my Qi. If I left it unattended, it would likely get me noticed. So long as I was careful and not completely outclassed by the demonic Cultivators here, I had techniques of my own for reconnaissance, that would suffice.

And in the Floral Hills, being outclassed wasn’t too much of a concern.

Once the man was let in, I slipped aside into the wooded area around the compound to scout. The sect wasn’t large - at least above ground where I could see. There was one central pavilion and a smaller building to the side that was probably sleeping quarters of some kind. The training yard was a nice size for a group of twenty or thirty, but wouldn’t hold more than that.

Then I prepared to probe around with my Qi.

I closed my eyes to focus on my Qi. Navigating through various buildings and tools, I pulled upon the condensed Qi in my Core. A thick cord of Qi curled from the Core, and I let it spool out into the air. With some effort and focus, I purged it of any affinity, leaving it empty and clean. Hard to detect. And then I pushed it out and into the sect’s compound.

With the Qi scrubbed of my affinity, it was easily overlooked by people unaware of my presence as it would blend in with the natural spirit of the area.

I had trained extensively for this sort of ‘hunting’. Uncontrolled, my Qi could extend about 500 meters in every direction from me. Which wasn’t bad for an average Cultivator. If I took direct control, I could reach 3000 meters away, roughly. Which, again, was pretty good for an Earth Realm Cultivator.

As my Qi oozed into the sect, I focused my senses onto it. It allowed me to get a sense of the areas my Qi touched, though not interact at a distance.

As I directed my Qi around the compound, I found what I expected. Most of the people here carried that same wet dog smell. Several were bathed in it. Of the…19 fighters in the training yard, 3 of them appeared to be of decent strength, and were radiating that disgusting scent. The other 16 looked significantly less dangerous, and did not smell as foul.

I directed my Qi inside the main pavilion and found a stairwell that led underground. I took a deep breath to steady myself before letting my Qi trickle down the stairs.

And I immediately wanted to wretch.

This was the fourth demonic sect I had hunted down after I ventured out on my own.

And it was the third that was harvesting children.

I immediately put the greater concerns out of my mind. Whether or not someone or something was spreading the disgusting technique used to harvest from children around was irrelevant right now.

I fought the urge to vomit as my Qi traveled over dead bodies of children that had been used to death. I held a hand over my mouth as it flowed over dried up husks and bodies that had been broken beyond recognition. Some didn’t even look human anymore.

Then I found the cages. There were five of them, in the back of the room. Only two of which were occupied. Both occupants were young, and not in good shape; either could fall over dead at any moment.

I saw red. There was no longer an abundance of time to plan an attack.

I was confident I would be stronger and more skilled than anyone in this camp.

The strongest person here may put up a fight, but I had trained specifically to hunt demons like this. Even with their stolen strength, I didn't feel like I'd lose.

So I went in. Protecting the kids was my first priority, so I had to place myself between them and the enemies.

I veiled myself in my empty Qi and snuck my way past those training in the yard and to the empty pavilion, which let me access the stairway unaccosted. There were two demons in the basement, likely Cultivating or working on their disgusting technique.

Neither of them paid me any mind, too engrossed in their work. I put myself between their backs and the cages, and called up a slim blade from my Qi.

The silver mercurial blade coalesced quietly in my hand, and I struck.

A quick thrust through the woman's back, a quick retreat, then a beheading stroke. One body collapsed to the floor.

The man turned to face me, his Qi exploding out in some kind of physical enhancement technique. The roiling stolen Qi covered his body like sleek oil. If any of the demonic Cultivators in the yard had their Qi active or were paying any attention, the sudden burst of combat would surely have alerted them.

My enemy raised both of his arms and charged me, the way a grappler would. As he lunged, I stepped aside and brought my blade up to sever the man’s arm.

The blade bit in, but was stopped at the bone. My opponent backed off, staring at his half-severed arm. I stared at my weapon, stunned. It hadn’t failed to cut like that in a long time.

I threw my arm out and down to the side, restructuring the blade into a heavier, single edged variant. I also produced a smaller knife, which I tossed into the air. It immediately flew to irritate my target, before he could fully regain his composure.

As I approached, weapon raised, he raised his damaged arm to block on instinct.

This time, my now heavier weapon cut cleanly through his arm, and deep into his side. With a wet, sucking sound, I pulled the blade out. The man fell to his knees, and I cleanly removed his head.

I lifted my head to watch as a large group of the demonic Cultivators from the yard came rushing down the stairs into the subterranean basement. Several held weapons. Others had techniques prepared. But all were looking for a fight.

And they all reeked of wet animal.

I narrowed my eyes as I put away any feelings I had about what was about to happen. I would be as cold and tempered as I had made my Qi weapons.

Without a word, I raised my sword. My knife hovered by my side, as it began to fan out into several flying knives.

Some of the demons looked just slightly worried as they stared down the flying blades, but most dismissed them as nothing more than a nuisance. They would learn better.

The man in the lead, one of the three that had appeared competent in the yard, leapt at me with a spear. His first thrust ended with the tip of his spear removed from the shaft. The second cost him a hand. Then I stepped in with a deep slash across his chest.

As a streak of blood splattered across my face, my vision, quite literally, went red.

I focused inward, taking in my Core, and felt the depth of the water and ice Qi held within. I was well into the Earth Realm now. Not at the peak, but still making good, level strides. Slow and steady and all that. Though, I suppose, I wasn’t really improving all that slowly.

With a stretch, I turned my focus back outside my body. Looking up at the sky, I stretched out my arms and legs. It had been a few weeks - maybe a month now - since I had left the Sect for some adventure and training. I had wandered aimlessly for a while, stopping by some of the major touristy areas.

Most recently, that had taken me to the Onyx Palisades.

They were certainly as impressive as I had heard. The spires stretched far up into the sky, and were a shiny onyx stone that felt almost metallic. Maybe they actually were metallic. Either way, they were a beautiful sight.

As I traveled around the various spires, I had been using the earth and metal aspected Qi in the area to work on some of the Frozen Mountain techniques I had largely ignored until now.

If I had endeavored to reach the top of one of the snow-topped spires, I may have found some ice or water-aspected Qi, which was typically my focus. It didn’t seem worth the effort though, as it would probably be weak. Or even mixed heavily with earth or metal Qi anyway.

As I wandered, I had my Qi fully extended. It was good training, keeping myself stretched as widely as possible, to expand my limits.

My ice techniques weren’t weak, but my strongest asset by far was my Qi control techniques. It pushed my Qi to an extremely large range, well beyond what an average Cultivator of my strength should be capable of.

By several orders of magnitude, in fact.

By far my most developed technique, I could use my Qi to observe and interact with things at a distance. It wasn’t nearly the same as being there, but it was incredibly good for scouting and communication. And with my control, I could reach somewhere in the realm of 6 kilometers away, if I took the time to focus.

As I half-flew to the next spire using gusts of wind and snow, my over-extended Qi touched on something that made me feel sick, just for an instant. With it spread out without my direct control, my range hovered around 1.5 kilometers.

Right inside that range was a small area that felt…wrong. Dirty. My Qi naturally wanted to recoil from it.

That intrigued me. I had heard that twisted, misused Qi could feel like that, but finding such a thing out in the open was incredibly rare. It was likely just a demonic beast that didn’t know how to veil itself, or such a beast had been ripped open and its Qi was leaking into the air.

I felt a pulse come from within the spot of wrongness. It roiled and surged for a moment, as though let loose. Immediately, without thinking, I turned to head toward it. Something wasn’t right with this.

As I ran, I funneled some Qi out into the world to use my farsight technique. When I opened my eyes to look around the new location, my physical body stopped running for a moment for safety. I could see what looked like a small sect compound. It was in good shape, but I didn’t see anyone.

As my view wandered into the main pavilion, a splash of red caught my attention, as it flew from the stairwell and splattered on the ground.

Blood.

I cut the view immediately. While this technique was amazing for farsight, it was also easy enough to notice. Little flurries of snow would even fall around my viewpoint. I didn’t want to draw the attention of whatever was there. Not yet, at any rate.

I ran toward the compound as quickly as my legs and the wind could take me. For a distance of fifteen or so kilometers, I covered the distance in good time. Less than half an hour, at the very least.

As I approached the closed gates of the compound, I split off into the trees and focused on my farsight technique again. I immediately moved my vision into the pavilion, and down into the basement.

Shortly thereafter, I cut the technique and moved in. As I approached the stairs I heard the sobs coming from down inside.