Chapter 89: 158. Slaughter

Jia tried to suppress her panic as one of Rika’s clones went to confront the enemy cultivators—her real body staying hidden within the palanquin.

“What do we do? Should we hide? What if they want to check the carriage—wait, Eui and I can disappear with Steps of the Stalker!”

Jia punctuated her statement by gripping Eui’s hand, and nearly began to use the technique on the spot before Hayakawa held up a hand to stop her.

“Just wait for now. We don’t know what their motives are yet. Stay calm.”

Calm—right, Jia realized that she really shouldn’t be so frightened. Being stuck in an enclosed space while hiding from persecutors had simply invoked some dark memories. What she needed right now was the calm rationality of Yoshika. With a quick squeeze of Eui’s hand and a deep breath, the two of them came to a silent agreement and their thoughts merged.

Yoshika frowned almost immediately as she took in as much of the scene as she could within her domain. By essence, their enemies were mostly around the late second, or early third stage. They had one peak houtian cultivator—the one who spoke, and presumably their leader. By practice, they were almost certainly single-discipline cultivators. She didn’t recognize any of them from the academy, and she doubted that the multi-disciplinary practices had managed to spread much in a mere two years, especially in the staunchly traditionalist Qin Empire.

A fight wouldn’t be ideal but Yoshika was confident that they’d prevail if it came down to a fight. That presented her with another problem—they were too confident. Perhaps it was just arrogance, but that wasn’t the impression she got. Even as powerful as they were, being so vastly outnumbered by martial artists wasn’t good for spiritualists, who were prone to being worn out by sheer attrition thanks to the superior stamina and hardiness of martial artists. No—even if Yoshika assumed that they weren’t aware of the powerful foes hidden in the palanquin, they were too confident not to have some kind of trick up their sleeves.

Escape wouldn’t be easy either. Certainly Yoshika could guarantee her own escape with Steps of the Stalker, but that would be leaving Hayakawa and Rika to fend for themselves against a group of powerful enemies—to say nothing of Hattori or the people she’d spent most of the last month getting to know. She had one experimental technique that she might be able to use to bring someone along, but she had no idea if it would work on anyone other than maybe Rika. Melody of the Dreaming Moon was an absolute last resort.

In the end, Yoshika could only watch with trepidation as Rika’s qi clone negotiated with the demon hunters. She frowned.

“Actually, why is Rika the one talking to them? Shouldn’t it be Hayakawa or one of the diplomats?”

Hayakawa chewed on her bottom lip, hesitating to answer. Rika ended up speaking before her.

“Revealing Hayakawa straight up is a bad idea if they are trying to assassinate her. So it falls to me—the next best diplomat on this entire cursed mission.”

Yoshika shot a pair of incredulous glances at Hayakawa Kaede, who averted her eyes in embarrassment.

“W-Well, it’s not as if our country is entirely lacking in diplomatically-minded individuals. It’s just—this mission is almost entirely my own initiative. My father agreed to it, but he didn’t exactly support it. He’s giving me the opportunity to fail, and most of the higher ranking nobles would rather not have their names dragged down with me.”

Yoshika put her heads in her hands.

“We’re so doomed.”

Rika held up a hand and shushed them.

“Shh! Let me focus—unlike some people I can’t seamlessly focus on two conversations at once.”

Rika’s clone bowed politely to the demon hunters.

“Hail travellers! By what right do you halt our convoy?”

Yoshika raised an eyebrow as she listened in, whispering under her breath in Eui’s voice.

“Why are you talking like that?”

Rika poked her in the ribs.

“Shut up!”

The imperial cultivators responded—ignorant of the conversation happening in the palanquin.

“We represent the Great Sects and the Divine Empire of Qin. It is our duty to root out and destroy demonism wherever it lurks. Submit yourselves to inspection immediately!”

Rika kept a strained smile on her face as she retorted.

“You’re a long way from home. We’re not currently within the Empire, and we are not imperial citizens. You have no authority here.”

The demon hunter’s face twisted into a scowl as he scoffed.

“You’re one to talk, barbarian! What business do you have within the land of beasts, especially so close to the source of the demonic incursion to this continent?”

“I could ask the same of you.”

“We patrol the area surrounding the demonic sect in order to ensure that their foul influence can’t leave—nor can others enter. Enough sophistry, submit to inspection or be destroyed.”

Within the palanquin, Rika whispered under her breath.

“I don’t think they're buying it, now what?”

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Hayakawa scowled.

“The truth, then. Don’t mention Lee or An. If they can hide, then perhaps we can get out of this by playing along. Be ready for a fight if they have ill intentions.”

Rika nodded stiffly, then turned her attention back to her clone, who had been pretending to consider her next words.

“Listen, this is a diplomatic envoy carrying a VIP to Goryeo. We’ll submit to the inspection to prove that we aren’t harboring any demons, but I’ll only allow one of you of my choosing to examine the palanquin. Just understand that attacking this caravan would be a direct act of war.”

The demon hunter’s face hardened, and one of the cultivators in the back surreptitiously crushed a piece of jade.

“Who is this VIP? Can you not even name the person you’re transporting?”

Before Rika could answer, Yoshika felt a powerful domain sweep across them and her blood froze in her veins.

“It’s a trap! They’ve just signalled a xiantian level cultivator!”

At the same time as Yoshika’s shout, the leader of the demon hunters thrust his hand forward, and a blade of pure light erupted from his fingertips, thrusting towards the neck of Rika’s clone. Yoshika’s warning was enough to let Rika avoid the strike, but the clone was quickly overcome as the other demon hunters surged forward to attack.

“Fuck!”

Rika swore as her clone was destroyed and Yoshika winced in sympathy. Rika had explained that it took significant time and effort to cultivate each clone, and losing them was a huge setback. Still infinitely preferable to death, of course. The ‘demon hunters’ quickly turned their attention to the now-fleeing envoys, and Yoshika moved without thinking. Each of her bodies burst free from opposite sides of the palanquin, simultaneously casting defensive spells and walls to protect the weaker martial artists. The xiantian cultivator was making her nervous, but whoever it was, they were keeping their distance and hadn’t attempted to suppress Yoshika’s domain.

Meanwhile, Hayakawa had also exited the carriage and began barking orders, rallying the caravan into an orderly retreat while Yoshika attempted to hold off the enemies. It was more than a little difficult to do so by herself, but she didn’t have to for long. A flaming bird screeched loudly as it dove out of the sky and slammed into the demon hunters and erupted into a blazing fireball. Rika and two more of her qi clones joined Yoshika in casting spells to protect their escape. The spells were little more than a stopgap, and the walls of stone quickly fell under the enemies’ assault. The leader with the blade of light sneered at them as he cut his way through.

“Goryeon mages! I should have known. You have no stake in this—give up the barbarian princess and we’ll let you scurry home with your tails between your legs.”

Though he suppressed it well, he failed to completely hide the ripple of emotion as he spoke. Not only was he lying, but his hatred of them seemed much stronger than his commitment to the mission. Perhaps he’d identified them as demons. Yoshika didn’t dignify the man with a response as Hayakawa spoke under her breath.

“How long do we have?”

Yoshika knew right away what she was talking about and shook her heads uncertainly.

“I can only sense their domain—whoever it is, they are still far away but they are watching. Do you think it’s even possible to escape a xiantian cultivator?”

Hayakawa shrugged.

“If they are alone, and it’s just us, perhaps. The caravan will be doomed if they choose to strike, however.”

The slight tremble in Hayakawa’s voice betrayed her calm demeanor. She feared for her life—and probably the lives of her people as well. Yoshika didn’t have time to say anything else before the demon hunters were upon them. She accelerated her mind to its absolute limits and unleashed Jia’s Lightning God Transformation. Hayakawa kept pace with her as the two of them surged towards their enemies and exchanged a silent glance of acknowledgement. Yoshika went left with Jia’s body while Hayakawa went right. With brutal efficiency, the two of them smashed into her opponents, breaking limbs and shattering bones with each strike. Neither could keep their techniques up for long, but their opening assault cut the number of enemies in half.

As Yoshika’s sense of time returned to normal, the startled leader of the demon hunters snarled angrily and lunged for Jia.

“I should have guessed you’d be one of them! You’ve made your last mistake, beast! Let’s see how your stolen techniques fare against a true cultivator of the great sects!”

Yoshika sheathed Jia’s body in an aurora of multi-colored plasma, shaping it with her technique into the form of a sword of her own as she met the cultivator’s charge. His sword of light shattered as it met her own, and his eyes widened in shock. She grinned savagely.

“Who do you think we stole these techniques from!?”

Of course, Yoshika didn’t consider her techniques stolen. She’d earned them fairly, and been personally taught by a member of the imperial family. She wasn’t about to argue her point, though. She followed up with a series of pressure-point strikes which sent her opponent staggering, but to her surprise he didn’t collapse. He spat to the side.

“Your pathetic spiritual attacks are worthless against a real cultivator, demon!”

Yoshika almost hesitated. Part of herself hadn’t appreciated the gravity of the situation, but another darker part had long since realized where this fight was going and had already begun to prepare herself. It was that part that took over now as she surged forward, her left hand crackling with dark energy. Her opponent leapt back in panic at the sight of it, but Yoshika’s lightning steps kept pace with ease. His scream was cut short as, without fanfare or preparation, Jia’s hands took a human life for the first time.

She didn’t have time to consider her thoughts on the matter, burying them deep within her as she allowed Eui’s experience to guide her hands. There would be time enough to unpack it later, when her life and the lives of her friends were not at stake. The fight changed in an instant. Eui’s body joined the fight, now armed with her sword. On some level, Yoshika had still been fighting like she had back in the academy—trying to disable her opponents without killing them. Now, she fell back on two years of experience fighting mindless beasts and the year that Eui had spent as a lone bandit.

With her Fetid Bog technique at full force, the movements of her enemies slowed down as they tried to fight off the corrosive assault on their souls. Yoshika used Eui’s destruction-empowered blade to separate one cultivator’s head from his shoulders, while Jia threw a spear hand straight through another enemy’s chest. The sudden brutality shocked even her allies—with Rika staring on in mute horror, while Hayakawa simply adjusted her own tactics in order to support Yoshika’s onslaught. In moments, all of Yoshika’s opponents lay dead or disabled.

When it was over, Yoshika stood stunned. That was it? For all their bluster about being an elite military force of ‘true cultivators’ it had been surprisingly...easy. Too easy, even. Yoshika had always thought that cultivators were hard to kill, and she'd personally survived and delivered injuries that would have left a mortal little more than a smear on the ground. Yet, as soon as she'd committed herself to ending their lives, that illusion turned out to be as fragile as they were. It felt wrong for it to be so simple—there should have been more gravity to the ending of a life, but there just wasn't. Yoshika was now acutely aware of the fact that she held the precious, fragile existence of every person around her hostage by her very existence. As if to challenge her hubris, her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden explosion of lightning next to her that resolved into the form of a tall man wearing bright white robes that matched his long hair and beard.

Yoshika felt a spike of panic as she felt the pressure from the man’s domain bearing down on her. Reflexively, she lashed out with Eui’s sword in a desperate attempt to end the threat. The man caught Eui’s destruction-empowered sword in one hand and shattered it in his grip. Then, as if nothing had happened, he placed his hands in his sleeves in front of him and stared down imperiously at her.

“That’s quite enough of that, child.”