Chapter 19: Arc 2: Chapter 1

She kept running for the longest time, to the point that she was amazed that she had enough stamina to do so, and that the forests and mountains didn’t end in all that time. The sun had gone from rising to the peak of the sky, and then beginning to head back down.

Once she stopped, she was so tired that she simply fell to the ground, landing in tall grass and on moist dirt, likely leaving a mark on her skin. However, she couldn’t care less about such things, as she noticed that she was still holding on to both of the things that had, in part, contributed to the day’s unfortunate incidents.

In one, she had a bloodied knife, still marked by the innocent life it took. The other held a strip of cloth that had held it under her clothing, allowing her to step into a poor situation without immediate notice.

‘I shouldn’t have taken it… I shouldn’t have let myself talk… myself… into this,’ Bianca took a brief while to catch her breath and recover a little energy, letting the Demonic Tyrant do its work to recover her planar energy as well. She had used both types during her lengthy sprint, and now she was feeling the effects – she was parched and hungry, her muscles burned like never before, and if the human body respected her efforts, she might grow into some kind of bodybuilder just from this.

Unfortunately – and this was the least unfortunate among all the things she could note – she wouldn’t come out of this ordeal with more than a week of aching and permanent mental trauma, though for different reasons.

‘Now that I’m out here, I can’t even throw the knife away. I might need to harvest something, or even hunt something, and without a knife, I’m out of luck,’ Bianca thought, taking a deep breath and rising from the ground, adjusting her position to sit and lean against a nearby tree, ‘Fuck… I hate myself for doing something like this, so how will Song Ming feel? I’ve just…’

She felt sick for a moment – probably in part due to her trip here – and shut her eyes, trying to push the thought and the image out of her mind.

Everything that happened today was awful, and she knew that she had made a terrible mistake. It was a mistake that would never completely leave her, nor was it one that she could ever fix, even if the Planar Continents had all kinds of magical abilities to discover.

Even if she was able to get her hands on something, she couldn’t ever bring back Old Man Song – as far as she knew, anyway – and more importantly, she could never undo the fact that she had stabbed him without real provocation or reason. That wasn’t something she’d forgive anyone for, and she hadn’t even experienced such a thing, so she couldn’t know the full extent of the pain, or the feeling of betrayal that came with it…

Bianca groaned as she felt her stomach rumble, her body demanding some form of sustenance.

‘Right, not the time for this… I wish I could go home…’ she sighed, raising both hands and looking at the things she held in them, ‘I’ll need to keep the knife, but since I’m not trying to hide it, I should think of a better place to put it… Maybe my leg?’

Putting it on her thigh, ideally on the outside of the leg, seemed to be reasonable enough. It wouldn’t be at a high risk of stabbing her, especially if she wore it over her pants, and it would be easy enough to grab in most circumstances. She also thought she recalled seeing at least one TV show in her youth that showed hunters doing something similar, albeit with proper holsters and not just some cloth.

Before that, though, she knew that keeping the knife covered in blood couldn’t be a good thing.

If she ran into anyone, it would arouse quite a bit of suspicion. Even if she didn’t, the weapon likely wasn’t made of stainless steel or anything of the sort, so it could rust and get damaged if she kept it dirty, even if the dirt in question was the blood of someone she never, ever should have even considered stabbing, not to mention actually doing it. Someone that, even in his final moments, managed to forgive her, and-

‘Oh no, I feel like I’m going to throw up… I mean, it would mostly be stomach acid at this point, but I think that should stay inside the body…’

Trying her best to contain herself, Bianca concluded that it might be a good idea to focus on her immediate survival rather than the past. After some deep breaths and attempts to think of the best things from Orbis – she mostly ended up thinking of examples of Antanian cuisine, like pizza, sushi, burgers and so on – she reached the conclusion that food had to be the number one priority of her attempts to survive out in the wilderness. Finding a place to rest or wash herself would be pointless if she starved to death a few days after finding it – not that she intended to remain in place for long.

She wanted to head away from Xi Village, away from the Calm Skies Sect and the Sacred Rivers Sect, away from the Dragon’s Fangs mountains, if she could find a place to climb down safely. If she could stumble across another village or town and conduct herself a little more sanely, she might even be able to have a decent life there.

However, after the absolute travesty that this day became, she was starting to think of home a lot more often.

It didn’t seem possible to return, but then again, it hadn’t seemed possible for her to end up in the Eastern Continents to begin with. Perhaps, if she was lucky – an unusual occurrence – she could find something or someone that could assist her, and then she could go back to a place where her worst threat was a particularly annoying roommate.

‘Thinking back on it, those were rather simple times… Damn it, I miss Roz, and even Lia… not the asshole, though, he can swap places with me if he wants. I’m sure spending some time without access to the college’s sluts would make him a little less insufferable.’

She shook the thought out of her head and finally tied the knife to her thigh, standing up and looking up at the sky through the thick forest canopy, using the location of the sun to determine her bearing.

Then, she proceeded south, circulating and absorbing planar energy on the go to recover from some of her exhaustion and to support her hungry, thirsty body. Perhaps if she was in a higher realm, she could have survived just with that, allowing her to avoid all needs other than sleep and rest, but for all her efforts up to this point, she was still in the first stage, at least as far as she could tell. Hence, her capabilities were extremely limited.

‘Well, off I go… Further out into the wilds…’

 

When Bianca ran, the people of Xi Village didn’t chase after her. The common folk could do little against a cultivator, and they weren’t fighters, so it would be far too risky for them to even try. Meanwhile, Lin Shuming was more interested in ensuring that the people were safe, and Song Ming…

She kneeled there, tears dripping from her eyes as she looked upon her father’s lifeless body. Blood slowly poured out of the open hole in his stomach, slowly covering more and more of the road, but his expression was serene, as if he merely slept. It was an extremely odd contrast, but it merely made the pain in her chest worse.

There was a faint hope within her that her dad would just stand up and be completely fine, and that Bianca would come back and everything would simply fade away, and she would wake from this terrible nightmare and everything would be fine. She knew it wouldn’t happen, she knew that these were mere dreams, but even then, the bitter sweet feeling she got from entertaining these thoughts was better than the absolute despair of knowing that everything had gone wrong in a moment, everything that had been simple and pleasant in her life was gone.

‘Why, Bianca… why did you… why…’ she kept asking herself, trying to understand how things came to be this way.

Her view was undisturbed, for it was too late to rescue her father. They had no life-saving pills, no rare elixir that could revitalise his body, no secret cultivation skill that might grant his physical body rebirth. Xi Village was, ultimately, just a place for ordinary men and women, with every major talent departing for the sects every ten years. Something like this was unprecedented.

Lin Shuming was near her, and after an uncertain length of time passed, he began, “I… I don’t know of a good way to say this, but-”

“Shut up. I… I know what you’re going to say…” Song Ming knew exactly what he would say, as she had witnessed part of the commotion on her way over. She knew that Lin Shuming had something to do with it. Even if she hadn’t seen a think, it would be obvious that he was somehow involved in the matter.

For a while, both of them were silent.

“What… what did you do?”

“Me?”

“How did this happen?” Song Ming asked again, staring at him through tear-filled eyes, “Explain it to me!”

“She stole a knife-”

“Don’t lie to me!”

“It is no lie! The knife with which she stabbed- with which she did this crime was taken from Min Yu’s kitchen the night prior, and she had carried it on her under her shirt… for some reason,” Lin Shuming’s confusion spilled into his righteous tone, though he corrected that immediately, “She lingered around Min Yu’s home, scaring her, and I happened to be near. Then, she must have felt intimidated by my presence and pulled out the knife.”

“…” Song Ming clenched her teeth, failing to subdue more tears as she thought this over, “You wanted this to happen, didn’t you?”

“I am not some vicious demon, Song Ming! You must know that I care for the village and its people, even at the times when I make some error in judgement. When Song Ling approached her, I had hoped it would calm her down and let me subdue her without harm. I hadn’t expected this, which is why I didn’t wish to risk chasing her down, just in case she had something up her sleeve.”

She stopped listening after a certain point, though she knew that Lin Shuming must have had plenty more to say. Instead, she thought back to all the time she’d spent with Bianca, every time they’ve talked, the time they’ve spent within one another’s arms…

‘Was it all fake, or had the time we’ve spent away been enough for her to… oh, heavens, this is awful. I… I have get through this. Without dad, I… I have to be strong!’

Although she thought that, she had no clue how she’d do this. It was nothing like she’d ever encountered, and she had no clue how she could possibly move forward. What could she even do? She’d never experienced anything of the sort, and she was 19 at this moment, far younger than her dad had been when he was trusted to do anything noteworthy in the village.

It seemed impossible to make any kind of choice so quickly.

“We should grant your father the burial of one of our village’s heroes, so that his breath may forever nourish our future generations,” Lin Shuming proposed after only a brief silence, “He was no cultivator, but he tried his best to salvage the situation, far more than I ultimately did.”

‘At least you know that… but it does make sense,’ she nodded, rising from the ground, “Yes, that… that seems to be best. Then… I want to go after her.”

“You wish to hunt her down?” Lin Shuming asked, the excitement blatantly leaking into his voice.

“I… I want to understand why. I want to know if she had told me the truth, or if she had been lying to me… to all of us.”

Although he seemed to have some issues with that, he wisely chose to refrain from commenting, and instead looked to a person in the crowd who had experience in the proper burial rites. They would need their expertise if they wished to honour Old Man Song’s memory properly, and none among them wished to do otherwise.

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“What… the fuck… is that?” Bianca asked herself, staring at a strange berry bush a few steps away from her.

It was, mostly, an ordinary-seeming berry bush, the type she’d seen in various illustrations and photos, as well as a live sighting in a garden of one of her parent’s friends. Small and covered in simple green leaves, it was made odd purely by the presence of glistening, glowing berries that grew upon it.

They looked like small disco balls, except that they produced the light that they then reflected and scattered all over the place. Just like a number of things she’d seen off the sides of the mountain to the north, it seemed completely unnatural and unreasonable, and more than anything, she had no clue whether it was safe to get any closer to the berries, not to mention actually trying them. If it was something from Orbis, she could be sure that it would be filled with radiation or some type of extreme poison, for there was no other reason for the berries to look the way they did.

Unfortunately, this was not Orbis, and the rules that applied there weren’t quite as consistent here. The glow and glistening might be a common thing for plants affected by planar energy, for instance, and she had nobody to ask, nor anybody to test them on in some manner, though she would never condone such a thing… unless her roommate was here.

‘I haven’t found anything remotely edible so far, though. Leaves and stuff, yes, but I doubt that is particularly nutritious, and some may be poisonous, so I wouldn’t want to risk it,’ Bianca continued staring at the berries, ignoring that their glistening was slowly straining her poor eyes.

She eventually looked away, blinked a few times for her eyes to adjust to the significantly darker forest around the berry bush, and decided to risk it. The berries weren’t especially large, so the worst case scenario – in her head, at least – was a mild stomach ache or something of the sort, but the best case was a miracle food that filled her with a single berry, like the travel rations from one of the fantasy movies she had seen as a kid.

Bianca stepped closer and reached out to grab one of the berries with just two fingers. There wasn’t much resistance from the bush, and her fingers weren’t burning immediately, so that was a good start.

‘They don’t smell bad, either. They don’t really smell like anything… maybe water or something…’ her ever-reliable nose didn’t detect anything either, so she decided to risk it and place the berry in her mouth.

It tasted a little sweet, but otherwise unimpressive. She wasn’t sure how a glowing, sparkling berry could be so simple and bland, but it was, so she finally took the risk to chew it.

The first bite was enough to spill most of the juices into her mouth, and she instantly felt elated. There was more juice than she had been expecting, and all of it was cool, sweet and filling, as if she had just eaten a bite of steak or something of the sort. Obviously, it didn’t compare to a full meal, but if she had enough of these, it might be enough to make up the difference.

She took another berry and ate it right away, not even bothering to swallow her first bite, and then she felt something else, something that made her gaze inside herself with her spiritual perception. At her core, within the dantian, the misty darkness had filled an unseen sphere, and the very moment she had looked over, she saw that energy flash with crimson and collapse inwards. It grew thicker and denser, almost double of what it was before, and the overall volume shrank significantly, making her worry for a moment.

However, as she swallowed the mouthful of glowing berry juice – she was curious whether it would keep that property when it inevitably left her body, but she’d inevitably figure it out soon enough – she realised that the berries contained some amount of planar energy. When it entered her body, it was promptly picked up by the Demonic Tyrant’s influence, circulated throughout particular paths in her body, and then sent into the dantian, where it turned into her own power.

It was as dense as the recently condensed cloud, and although it seemed smaller in quantity, she felt as if she had the same amount of power to draw upon.

‘Is this… a breakthrough? Am I in the second stage now? That was… not especially impressive, but it should be a good thing. Now, I might be able to sustain myself with just the energy a little better, and maybe… maybe I could return home, one day…’

She snapped up a few more berries, then stopped and considered the fact that they might have a rather short shelf life, so to speak. If she just grabbed up every berry and then had them expire within a day, then she would have run out of all supplies before having the chance to get far, which would be incredibly unfortunate. Even if her cultivation had advanced – which she might be misunderstanding – it should only be giving her another ten percent boon, little more.

In other words, rather than being a weak, ignorant girl, she was equivalent to being 1.2 weak, ignorant girls.

That wasn’t much of an improvement, whether she would have to hunt for something, or seek out additional edible plants from which to forage and harvest. She barely knew what was and wasn’t edible was on Orbis, and that had a far smaller range of possibilities than the mad world of the Planar Continents, so she didn’t expect to get as lucky next time.

Thus, she spent some time staring at the berries, just to make sure the glistening didn’t weaken right away, as that would be a good indicator of them turning bad… probably. However, she didn’t have much patience, so after a while, she decided it would be best not to waste the day like this.

She needed the berries, and she had no intention to head north again, so she wouldn’t be returning to this particular berry bush any time soon. Hence, it would be best to gather as much food as possible, then dispose of them whenever the stuff she gathered turned bad, whatever that would mean for these berries in particular. With the pockets she had, she could bring all of the berries with her, and so long as she remained careful, these things wouldn’t spill out or get damaged.

‘Alright, now I need some water, then a place to sleep… ideally in that order,’ Bianca looked to the side, noting the long shadows and the near-horizontal beams of light barely passing through the forest canopy, ‘Might not succeed in that regard, though… How do people sleep in the wild without tents, without sleeping bags?’

 

The work was done absurdly fast, and thus, as the evening came, Song Ming stood beside her fellow villagers and looked upon the gravestone before her. It featured her father’s name, and somewhere beneath it, his body now lay.

She had been crying for the longest while, so now that she faced the grave, no more tears spilled from her eyes. Sadness still filled her heart, but the drive to learn the truth grew with each breath she took, making it difficult to complete the rite. Nonetheless, she pushed through and produced a breath that she imbued onto the grave, letting it warm the cold stone for the briefest moment until she finally withdrew.

“Goodbye, dad… May the heavens guide you to a better place, and may your spirit grant our village another millennium of prosperity.”

The others relayed their own prayers and wishes, but Song Ming did not listen. They weren’t for her anyway, and she would gain nothing from hearing them. Instead, she thought back to the moment she found her life being torn apart, even after her initial triumph. The image stayed inside her head whether she wished for it or not, making it hard for her to rest.

Lin Shuming seemed to be less affected, and the moment the proceedings were finished, he already had something to say, a particular box in his hands.

“The sects ought to know about this situation. I shall summon them to us, and I will ask whichever one responds to follow after you, provided you still intend to depart,” he said, raising the box in one hand, gripping the bottom and leaving the top available for easy opening, “Surely you cannot have any objections with it at this point?”

“No… Call them, if you want…”

He nodded, and opened the box using his other hand. It was only the size of his fist, shaped like a cube, though with a larger lid than the base. Within, soft velvet housed an orb that glowed with a vivid crimson light, as if it was a ruby cut to such perfection that it could emit light.

It seemed a feeble glow, barely illuminating the material on which it sat, but everyone that gazed upon it could see the orb’s glow without issue.

This was an artefact produced by one of the sects in ages past, around the founding of Xi Village and the creation of the tradition for sects to visit it. As few cultivators would remain within the village, it was recognised that it should be possible to call for protectors and fighters to defend it in the case of any threat, and thus the orb was produced and granted to the protector of the village for safekeeping, to be used when there was need.

Strictly speaking, as long as Bianca never returned, then there would be no proper justification to call the sects with this method, even if she was as terrible a being as Lin Shuming thought her to be. However, the situation was sufficiently abnormal that none in the village would object, and it would be best to have a proper team chasing her down instead of a lone, young woman with no experience.

Lin Shuming removed the orb from its container and raised it up, making sure that it would be seen by at least one of the sects. So long as one disciple looked in their direction while he held it, the call would be known by the sect before tomorrow.

“So… I will go. Please don’t come after me, or her, no matter what you do.”

“Are you still insistent that she is a good person?” he asked, his attempts to hide his contempt failing miserably.

“I just know that you will make things worse, no matter what else occurs. So, stay here and protect the village, as you are supposed to. I… I will chase her down and learn the truth. The whole truth, whatever that may be.”

 

Bianca had discovered two things as the sun descended below the horizon and the darkness of night began to consume the land.

The first was that the glowing property of the berries did not survive her digestive system. If she somehow ended up back on Orbis and needed to urgently submit a urine sample, it would likely not stand out that much.

The second was far more useful, and it was a particular spot beneath some trees, where a heavily leaning tree combined with some fortunate geography produced a spot where she could rest for the night. It wasn’t ideal, so she decided to spend the rest of her time hunting for large branches covered with leaves that she could lean against the leaning tree and produce some more cover for herself, while also looking for something that would pass for a mattress, though she knew that the chances of her just finding one lying about were rather low.

‘It’s getting dark, and I’m hearing some howling in the distance, which might be related to the mountain wolves I’d heard about…’ Bianca returned to this place of rest with yet more branches to add to the only exposed side, producing a half-decent wall for herself, ‘No mattress, but I’m already up way past my bed time, and I’m wearing clothing that is still stained with blood and mud…’

She sighed and climbed into the small opening she’d left for herself, curling up as much as she could to keep herself warm.

Just as she had not found a suitable mattress, she had not found a source of water, so she had been unable to bathe and clean herself up of the remnants of the day’s… events. It was an extremely unpleasant feeling for a woman that had previously showered every single day, but she had already recognised that there was little she could do about it. The world was the way it was, and unless she somehow jumped to a higher cultivation realm, most Orbis conveniences would be beyond her.

Bianca sighed, ‘Oh well. Maybe I’ll fall asleep and find myself back in Xi Village… or at home… or somewhere. In theory, so long as I don’t lose anything while sleeping, like the berries, my knife or any limbs, things will be… fine… Maybe…’

She wasn’t especially confident in her chances, but eventually, her exhaustion must have caught up to her, as the thoughts faded and she ended up asleep, even as the howls continued.

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