Chapter 159: 227. Stall

The silence in the room was deafening, and Yoshika’s friends were all glaring at her accusingly. She had unwittingly challenged the elementals and they were calling her bluff. The magma elemental had never spoken, as far as Yoshika could tell—she wasn’t even sure it could, since its face was just a smooth dome of glass—but she had no doubt that it was a xiantian level fighter. The glowing statue of volcanic stone sealing Seong Min was proof enough of that. The atmosphere in the room was unbearably tense as Yoshika tried to figure out a way out of the mess she’d thrown herself into.

The moment was shattered by two matching peals of raucous laughter. Jianmo’s simulacra literally rolling on the floor in laughter.

“Ahahaha! You really did it! Oh, I’m going to be so upset that I missed this!”

Yoshika crossed her arms with both bodies and scowled down at the illusory demons, nearly giving into the temptation to kick one of them in the side—for all the good that would do.

“Quiet, you!”

Even as she chastised Jianmo with Eui’s body, she stepped forward with Jia’s, her mind working overtime.

“We’re exhausted right now. At least three of us were on the brink of death in the last hour alone! It wouldn’t be a fair demonstration of what we’re truly capable of. We need to—”

Void cut Yoshika’s words off by simply erasing the sound of them—a neat trick—and a new, unfamiliar voice erupted from deep within the magma elemental.

“One day. Rest. Return. Demonstrate.”

The Magma elemental’s voice was a deep, earthen rumble. The sound of stone grinding against stone at a scale that seemed impossible for the tall, but relatively humanoid creature. Though it didn’t speak louder than normal speaking volume, the sound nevertheless resonated painfully within Yoshika’s eardrums. Elementals were weird.

“We’d need at least a week to—”

“One day.”

Yoshika winced as the magma elemental cut off her attempts to negotiate. So much for that, then. She glanced around the room to see mixed expressions on her friends' faces, ranging from resignation to approval—or in Eunae’s case, deep worry. That gave Yoshika another thought.

“What about the Seong clan? And our—my family? Can you guarantee their safety while we rest?”

“No.”

Void’s soundless voice answered without hesitation, but Yoshika quickly realized her mistake.

“Will you promise not to take further action against them?”

“Yes.”

Better. Well, still not ideal—Seong Misun was still impaled to the ceiling, and Eunae’s mother and cousin were both encased in ice and stone respectively. Yoshika wasn’t sure how far the sturdiness of a xiantian cultivator went, but none of that sounded very good for their long term survival prospects—to say nothing of the queen herself, who was just gone.

“Will the Seong family survive their current conditions?”

There was another awkward silence before Iseul jumped, realizing she was being called on to translate once more.

“Oh! Yeah, they should be fine. It looks bad, but they’ll live as long as they have mana to sustain their forms.”

Right. It was sounding more and more like xiantian cultivators could barely even be considered human anymore, but that was something to process later. Yoshika nodded slowly.

“Right then, should we just go now, or...?”

She blushed as nearly everyone gave her a flat look. Iseul shook her head.

“No, stay. You can rest here where they can keep an eye on you.”

Yoshika raised an eyebrow incredulously.

“For a whole day, just sitting here in the throne room?”

Iseul shrugged.

“A whole day. Twenty three hours, fifty nine minutes, and twenty seven seconds, to be exact. They’ve already been counting.”

Yoshika grimaced.

“Can we at least send somebody to check on my family to make sure they’re okay?”

After a brief pause, Iseul nodded.

“Hyeong Aecha, Kim Yongsun, and Seong Haeun are free to go.”

It wasn’t ideal, but Yoshika knew she could trust Hyeong Aecha and Kim Yongsun’s loyalty to Eunae at least.

“Fine. Give us a day, and we’ll show you what we can do. Iseul, can we have Ja Yun back, please? We’re going to need her help as well.”

With a concerning note of hesitation, Iseul nodded slowly.

“Y-yeah, I guess so. That makes sense. Uh, just don’t forget when I go back that I’m still...me? I don’t think Mom and Dad understand what they’ve created, but you do, right?”

Oh, ancestors, what a complicated mess that was. Yoshika didn’t envy Iseul’s existence one bit.

“Of course. We’ll try to figure out a way to bring you back that doesn’t involve hijacking Ja Yun’s body. Assuming we survive all this.”

For the first time, Iseul’s smile was completely genuine. Not a hint of her inhuman nature shined through.

“Great! I knew you’d understand, Yoshika. Thank you.”

And then she was gone. The cloak of slime withdrew from Ja Yun’s shoulders, reforming itself into a smooth round blob in her arms. Ja Yun herself staggered a bit, then shook her head. It was strange watching the transformation reverse. Ja Yun’s head lowered as her shoulders fell into a slouch, her body language becoming tight and withdrawn. The fierce blush on her face suggested that she remembered everything that had happened since her possession.

As Ja Yun slunk back over to the group, her eyes firmly glued to the floor, Rika placed a hand on her shoulder with a worried look.

“Are you alright?”

Ja Yun barely glanced up before shaking her head, her voice soft as she responded.

“I don’t know. Need to think about stuff, and we’ve got bigger problems right now.”

Kaede took the opportunity to cut in, her voice tense.

“That’s understating things. What were you thinking, Yoshika?!”

Yoshika sighed, a little exasperated with Hayakawa’s failure to read the room, but she wasn’t wrong.

“You’re right, it was dumb, but we think it was inevitable anyway. One way or another we need to prove to these elementals that we are worthy allies.”

Eunae joined in, with Hyeong Aecha and Haeun in tow.

“Are we going to just ignore the fact that they’ve taken our families hostage, overthrown the country, and aim for the destruction of our entire world? Yoshika, you know I trust you, but are you sure about all this?”

Yoshika sighed, shaking her head with both bodies.

“Not really, no. We’re not sure about anything right now, but we think it’s a mistake to think of the elementals as people. Iseul aside, they are more like intelligent forces of nature—they are just doing what they think will get them what they want.”

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Ja Yun flinched at the mention of Iseul, staring lifelessly at the mud elemental in her arms as she mumbled.

“Their goals aren’t necessarily incompatible with ours. We just need to nudge them in the right direction.”

Kaede stroked her chin thoughtfully.

“One can’t stop a river’s flow, but it can be redirected.”

Yoshika nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes, exactly! We just have to create a scenario where ending the world isn’t the simplest way for them to reach their goals.”

Eunae frowned, crossing her arms under her chest grumpily.

“I think we’re really neglecting the whole ‘threatened our families’ part, here!”

Yoshika shrugged helplessly.

“There’s no malice in it—ancestors, I don’t think they’re even capable of malice. I want to protect our families as much as you do, but fighting hopelessly against a group of indomitably powerful elementals isn’t the way to do it.”

Rika snorted in amusement. She’d been quiet for most of the discussion, focusing on trying to comfort Ja Yun, but she shook her head at Yoshika’s words.

“Sorry, who was it that basically challenged the ‘indomitably powerful elementals’ to a duel, again?”

Yoshika flushed with embarrassment—she didn’t have a response to that. She was saved by an unexpected interruption, as Jianmo’s masculine simulacrum rematerialized in the center of their gathering.

“I don’t hate family drama, but you’re wasting valuable time here. When elementals give you a day they mean exactly a day. You’re not going to get so much as an extra second, and the clock is ticking.”

Yoshika gave the capricious demon an exasperated huff.

“And how do you propose to help, oh wise and ancient master’s powerless image?”

Jianmo placed a hand over his heart and mocked a painful grimace.

“Ouch! You wound me little disciple! The answer is simple...I’ll do what I was going to do in the first place and teach you your next lesson.”

The feminine Jianmo appeared next to Eui’s body, leaning on her shoulder in an overly familiar manner.

“You’ve got all the pieces, now it’s time to put them together. You’re going to learn about sacred arts.”

 

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Jia, Eui, Kaede, Rika, Eunae, and Ja Yun sat in a circle around Jianmo’s simulacra, feeling a bit uncomfortable under the impassive gaze of their elemental adversaries. Hyeong Aecha and Kim Yongsun had been sent back to the estate to take care of Haeun and make sure Yoshika’s family was alright. Jianmo, for their part, looked perfectly at home in the bizarre circumstances, happily delivering their lesson.

“Right, so before we begin there’s something you should know...”

Jianmo’s masculine persona took on an almost professor-like attitude as he began.

“In the divine realm, there are no mortals whatsoever. And I mean that by the divine realm definition of ‘mortal.’ In other words, xiantian is the lowest level of power one can have. Even children are born with immortal bodies and the innate ability to understand divine essence.”

Eui scowled and crossed her arms irritably. Yoshika had split up temporarily in order to try to take in the lesson from multiple perspectives at once, but Jia could already feel Eui struggling against her newly empowered demonic core.

“So we’re fucked, then? How does that even work, anyway? Are there thousand-year-old babies flying around throwing tantrums that overturn mountains?”

Jianmo chuckled and shook his head.

“No, not quite. For humans and fiends, they age normally until they feel like they shouldn’t anymore. Spirits always take on whatever form they most identify with, and elementals...well, we’ll get to that.”

Eunae cocked her head.

“That doesn’t sound right, though. So much of cultivation involves self-reflection and understanding. How could a newborn child have enough of an understanding of the world to even form a domain?”

“Tsk, tsk. I didn’t say they had domains, little fox. In fact, it’s something of an open secret that natives to the divine realm tend to be much weaker on average than the ascended. They take their power for granted and never learn to properly wield it.”

Jia furrowed her brows as a thought struck her.

“Wait, aren’t you a native of the divine realm?”

“Hah! Sharp as always. Well, I did say on average. I’m an outlier, since I’ve been alive for so long and I had such a cruel and unforgiving master. Most my age would have long since become gods, even just passively absorbing divine essence. My master wouldn’t allow such laziness.”

Jia pursed her lips, carefully refraining from comment. Jianmo either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“Anyway, your foe is one of those natives. I can tell at a glance—even the cowardly lion over there has a better defined domain, and she’s barely started on hers. Lava boy is all substance and no form.”

Ja Yun tried to curl in on herself and disappear, while Kaede raised a curious eyebrow at the demon.

“Shouldn’t that be the other way around?”

Jianmo leveled a predatory grin on her.

“No, not at all. In terms of sheer power, he can crush you all like bugs in an instant. Or he could, if he knew how to properly wield it. You can think of him as a brute of sorts, incredible power—relatively speaking—but no technique at all. Just look at how he handled Princess Seong Min over there.”

He nodded towards the huge stalagmite covered in glowing runes where Eunae’s cousin was sealed—presumably still alive.

“It’s clumsy, artless, and was barely enough to restrain, much less harm, a xiantian cultivator. He’s not used to the limitations of a mortal world. In the divine realm, the magma he commands would have rendered her soul to ash.”

Eui scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, and he still won. If the so-called Grand Magus couldn’t handle him what chance do we have?”

Jianmo shrugged.

“Who knows? But we’ll try to even the odds as much as possible. He’s got the power but you—well, some of you anyway—have the edge in technique. Of course, even with all the groundwork you’ve already done it will be completely impossible for Yoshika to learn how to create her own sacred arts in less than a day—to say nothing of the rest of you.”

Rika, projecting all the bravado she could muster, leaned back and grinned at the pair of demons lecturing them.

“So what do you suggest, then? I’m guessing you wouldn’t waste your time telling us all this if you didn’t think there was a way we could actually win this.”

“Of course there is.”

Jianmo nodded sagely.

“You’re going to cheat.”