“What’s the plan?” Liren asked.

“Lian isn’t going to make a move until he sees we are already stuck in with the Grand Shamans, however many there are, or the heretics, whoever is out there attacking. He’ll also keep an eye on Sweetdove, and anyone else who might be lurking. Speaking of Sweetdove-” Tian got himself sorted, and kept raking his awareness around the city. He had enough grasp of the perception spell to keep it limited to finding Heavenly Realm Qi.

“Handed over the robes with no argument, said if we survived she would finish up the embroidery, pulled out a talisman and flew off in a blaze of light a hell of a lot faster than I can fly with the sword. ‘Escape Talismans’ are another thing we need to be stocking up on.”

Tian nodded. “I’m feeling something faint on the edge of the city. You?”

“Nothing.”

“Follow me. I’ll fly, you go on the ground. I’ll mark where I’m sensing Heavenly Qi.”

Liren snorted, but already had her spear out.

The two raced out of the city, keeping their attention moving. Tian was increasingly sure he knew where someone or something was concealed. It was the little prickles. The memory of what gu qi felt like from the wastes. He kept his perception art moving, covering the grassland for miles in every direction. He concentrated his qi hard on a spot to the east. Anyone with even a little awareness would see that he was fiercely examining something.

Tian threw a fist sized bundle at a spot in the exact opposite direction of where he was looking. The thin paper wrapping it fell apart with the force of the throw, sprinkling brownish dust over a ten foot stretch of empty grassland.

There was an unholy screech. So loud, it stilled the battles within the city for a moment. The grasslands shimmered like a summer heatwave, then the air seemed to part and a monster was revealed. Something between a mantis and a man, more insect than human, it retained elements of a human face, and vestigial hands tucked under the scythe-arms. Its shell was a marvel of spellwork and gu breeding, a thing of shimmering color and shifting patterns, operating to confuse both the eyes and the qi detection of Heavenly People. Even now, as it screamed and tried to wipe away the dust, the colors were shifting, making it hard to see where the heretic ended, and the grassland began.

Liren had good eyes. She came through a gate in the city wall like a comet, an omen of death streaking towards the heretic. The spear she bought might not be anything special, but it was enough for the job at hand. Scythe arms lashed out at Liren, trying to cut her down. They were a half second too slow. Liren was at the beast’s chest, her spear blazing as she stabbed upwards. Looking for something immediately fatal to pierce.

The seemingly vestigial hands formed a mudra. Liren swore and yanked her spear free as she shot backwards, trying to keep out of the way of a spray of acid. Tian wasn’t idle- he stood straight on the sword, right hand holding two fingers in front of his nose, while his left marked the count on his rosary. It was easy to lose where you were, reciting a complicated formula. For someone new to the Heavenly Realm, the Small Flock Gathers formation was enough to strain him.

The Heavenly Swallows darts came twisting out of his sleeves, the hundred new darts splitting into groups and being led by the ten originals. Some darts were more yin, some more yang, the degree of potency changed as well, so the darts had to be assembled in a very particular order. As they swiftly settled into place, they really did resemble a flock of swallows gathering at sunset. Like a flock of swallows at sunset, they had gathered to hunt insects.

“Hell Sealing Acupuncture Art, First Move!” Tian yelled. His voice was echoing off the city walls as the darts dove through the air in sinuous waves. The mantis-man swore, showing that at one point it had been recognizably human. The swears might have meant something, were it not for the long fangs sticking out of either side of his mouth. The patterns on his shell became more vivid, more complex, harder to distinguish from the surrounding grassland. The little hands beneath the scythe arms didn’t stop moving, however. Liren was pushing Moon Crossing the Lake as hard as she could, but Tian could see little flecks of acid rolling down her new robes.

The darts struck, piercing the armored shell and burrowing into the fleshy interior. Needles hit joints, organs, muscles, some made it into the head. Not hard enough to be fatal, but they were stuck in there.

The mantis-man growled something. Perhaps he was trying to say “You missed.”

Tian didn’t smile. He didn’t shift his posture, even his counting on the rosary kept its steady pace. Without a sign, without a single external move, the darts started vibrating. The flesh was seething with vital energy and gu qi. It wasn’t easy to destroy. Tian didn’t have to destroy it for his attack to be lethal.

In the instant when the heretic was paralyzed by the damage from the vibrating needles, Liren attacked. Two blazing lunges punched holes through the creature’s chest, while a third took it in the head. Milky white blood poured out, along with more unpleasant things that hissed with reeking grey smoke when they hit the grass.

Mmm? Grandson, quick! Reach in and grab the heart. I’ll guide your hand.

Tian dove downward, the sword clinging to his feet. He hopped off next to the body and quickly ripped out the still beating heart. There was something inside of it he could feel. Something small, barely the size of a pearl.

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Refine it. Don’t even remove it from the heart, just use the Darknorth Sea Art. I’ll guide you through the second phase of the art as you do. Don’t worry, I upgraded it, so it’s easier to learn. And far more effective.

“Liren, guard me while I refine this. Please and thank you.”

“Why are you talking to me like I’m an outsider,” She grumbled, but her eyes were sharp, sweeping the grassland. Tian didn’t reply. They’d had the same mini-argument a dozen times before. He concentrated on breathing, and guiding the energy the way Grandpa showed him. It… really was quite simple. It was exactly what he had done before, but now there was a little hole in the middle of it. He could feel the hole pulling something out of the pearl, and drawing it down into some part of him he couldn’t quite point to. It was one of the strangest things he had ever felt.

Good, it will keep there for a little while. Don’t stop cultivating, but be ready to drop it at any moment. Expect a backlash. Don’t worry, it won’t cripple your ability to fight. Actually, frown and hunch over. Like you have cramps and are struggling. Good. Got a firm grip on your darts?

A white cloud rose from the city, speeding to the north quick as an arrow, and accelerating. Still hunched over, Tian grinned fiercely.

“He’s making a run for it. Jump on my shoulders!”

Liren sprung over, landing lightly on his shoulders. Tian shuddered as he rode out the effects of breaking his cultivation, then commanded the sword to rise. Liren kept her balance as only an immortal could, crouching down and holding on to his shoulder for extra support when needed. Behind them, Tian’s darts swirled, the hunting flock moving and looking for new prey.

“Speed, speed, speed.” Tian murmured. “We have one chance.”

Hong Liren said nothing. Her attention was completely on the flying cloud. The first step of her road of vengeance lay within it. Tian raised his right hand once more, counting on his rosary, the mnemonics guiding him through the tapestry of qi he wove between the darts. Before, they had flown in scattered groups, converging on several points. Now they were compressed into a javelin of needles, with a singular, terribly sharp, point.

“If you can’t make it heavier, make it faster. Let’s test it out.”

Tian grunted as he slammed his qi into the formation, pouring in most of what he had left. The Heavenly Swallows darted forward, blowing apart the cloud and revealing the flying ship within it. His darts made contact with a ward. The first dart struck and fell away, then the second, the third- all the darts hit the same spot and fell away, moving so quickly, it sounded like one long, continuous strike.

The ward flashed a brilliant green, ripples of force passing over it like saw toothed waves in yellow and crimson.

“NOW!”

Liren lept from his shoulders, the sudden force shoving the sword down and back despite his bracing for it. She used her body’s unique movement ability to accelerate in a blazing line, the horn spear leading the way. Tian knew the move- Linear Flame. Aptly named. The spear smashed into the ward, striking the exact spot the darts had struck. Her eyes had always been sharper than his. And Liren had been cracking wards for years.

Tian watched talismans and enchanted devices explode across the deck, sending fragments scything through the constructs operating the junk. It was a powerful ward, but the two had cracked it the only way they knew. Hit it in the right spot until it breaks. Liren’s momentum carried her to the deck, and Tian was a bare step behind her.

Tian switched to his staff, recalling the darts to his sleeve. He struck heavy blows on the statue-like constructs, each a frowning soldier carved from stone and bronze. They had strength, and endurance. They didn’t have the ability to fly. Tian swung hard, putting his own dense, powerful body behind every swing. He kept them off Lian’s back, knocking the constructs overboard when he could.

Time. It all came down to time. Surprise was a fleeting advantage, and Lian had far, far too much equipment for them to even consider anything more than a lighting battle. Tian didn’t have to defeat all the constructs, he just had to keep them off Liren for a few seconds.

The door to the hold at the back of the ship was sealed with a heavy medallion and crawling with spells. The walls were more simply warded. Liren didn’t try any fancy moves, and simply punched straight through the wall of the ship. No spell, no technique, she let the spear lead, and ran. Every second was a knife cutting a little more of their throats.

Coming through the watertight bulkhead was a dull looking middle aged man with short mustaches that grew from his upper lip without ever quite meeting in the middle. He didn’t speak any nonsense. He just raised a small tablet and gathered his qi. A spell formed on it near-instantly.

A lot can happen in the space between “near” and “instantly.”

Liren lunged. Not a proper two handed spear lunge, she shoved off with her left foot, taking a giant step forward with her right. She grabbed the spear near the bottom of the shaft with her right hand, dropped her left, and stabbed forward.

The older man should have been out of range. He should have had the time to get the talisman activated. Whatever the shimmering light that sprang up around him was, it should have stopped any spear. The horn spear popped it like a soap bubble, and Lian’s skull didn’t hold up any better. The horn spear wasn’t interested in ought-to’s, or shoulds. It dealt only in what was. It was the horn of a legendary beast. One that despised heretics.

Tian could see Liren's arm stretched as far as it would go, the spear at the maximum extension of her reach, and Daoist Lian hanging from the end of it. From left foot to the tip of her spear, it was nearly twenty feet of reach. He’d have thought he was safe too.

Hong swooped in and grabbed Lian’s storage ring before tossing the body into her storage ring. The two looked at each other, then quickly ran their qi through the junk. “The prisoners. Where are the prisoners?!” Tian asked.

“I don’t know!”

“Search, quick!”

They ripped through the junk like a wind storm. If it wasn’t nailed down, it went into a ring without any examination. If it was nailed down? If it looked even slightly valuable, it was ripped out of the wall or floor and shoved into a storage ring. Spells were flaring into life on the ship, gathering more and more qi, building to unsustainable, unstable, levels. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

“Find anyone?”

“No, it was just Lian and the constructs!” Liren shouted. “Did you find a way to stop the explosion?”

“No!”

She raced over to him, and the two leapt off the rail, and out into the blue sky over the steppe. Just in time- the junk exploded in a cloud of fire and shrapnel behind them. Lighting their glittering gold robes as they fell.