Chương 64: Arc 4: Chapter 13

The captain’s voice pierced through the overwhelming noise of thunder, “Everyone, disembark! This boat needs to be moved quickly before the weather worsens further.”

His voice snapped Bianca out of her stupor, though even when she looked away and followed Xue Yaling off the boat, holding hands with Song Ming to avoid being separated for any reason, she could still see the lightning bolt within the middle of her vision. It was as if the entire tribulation was playing out before her no matter where they went, even when she got inside the huge tent she had seen from the distance.

She saw wave after wave of lightning fall upon a point, which met it with some sort of resistance that Bianca couldn’t fathom. Some were blocked outright, and others suddenly curved midway and fell upon other things, such as a tree or even just the empty ground nearby.

A total of nine bolts fell, and a total of nine were dealt with, one way or another. And in the end, she saw a pillar with three distinct sides form, tapering into a fine point at the top. One side was larger than the rest, and on it – or perhaps through it – she could see a world not unlike this one, though something about it just didn’t feel right.

Everything within was slightly blurred and distorted, and whenever she saw any motion, it looked to spread into all directions before following through with one.

‘What the fuck… I don’t know what I’m looking at, but if this is an archetype, I wish I could’ve gotten this one…’ Bianca thought, ‘It doesn’t feel violent or hateful or frightening… It’s just some kind of nonsense that might’ve allowed me to never be targeted by the villagers, be attacked by the Blazing Skies Sect, be ambushed by those loggers-’

“Bianca?”

“Ah, fu- what?” the glow of the tribulation finally faded from her vision, and she realised she had accompanied her two companions all the way into the tent, arriving by one table among many.

In fact, when she had a proper look around, she realised that this tent was far, far larger than she had imagined. Inside was space equal to a medium-sized mansion, with hundreds of tables spread out on either side of a silver carpet. Leading all the way from the entrance to the back, to the foot of a large throne that currently remained unoccupied. It looked old and weathered, but even then she could see the hints of majesty upon it. On either side were draconic heads serving as armrests, and the back looked to be woven from countless blades.

Together, everything she saw was nearly enough to stun her again, though it couldn’t quite rival the tribulation and its consequence and thus allowed her to free herself before she made too much of a mess.

“Sit down already. Out of all the people here, we’re the least like to get away with delaying things.”

The kitsune’s reminder was said rather sharply, but it was appreciated nonetheless. With such a scale of gathering before her, it was easy for her to get overwhelmed, and having simple instructions to follow meant she didn’t need to try and figure out what all the other hundreds, if not thousands, of people were doing.

The table that Xue Yaling had led her and Song Ming to was near the middle, though closer to the front side of the tent. Behind them were people that seemed to be far more… impressive than they were, and ahead of them were people that seemed even more impressive, so to earn such a position was rather curious. Presumably, the kitsune she’d been following around was somewhat famous, though she had yet to find out what earned her such fame aside from the book which Xue Yaling had written.

And, if that was her main claim to fame, she doubted that she’d earn a place this near to Long Shiyi unless it was secretly a plan to cripple numerous enemy cultivators, or something like that.

‘Not that I know if such a thing could even work, nor whether it would be a good idea for people on your own side to also receive such a book…’ Bianca pondered, though she could hardly carry on that line of thinking while next to Xue Yaling.

That part of her history seemed to be a bit of a sore spot, so if she accidentally blurted out something she shouldn’t, she might get in trouble not only with the kitsune, but also with anyone or everyone around her. After all, if there was something more to that story, then it might be that they wouldn’t want random people figuring it out and blabbing it somewhere less… loyal to the dragon.

As such, she decided to focus on the tables instead. All of them were covered in plates and bowls of food, with various jugs scattered around and cups in front of every single seat. Some meals were familiar, others seemed like they were breaking some laws of physics, but ultimately, it was just a large-scale feast. Considering the typical peculiarities of this world, things such as odd food really wouldn’t stand out to a typical native resident, so she tried not to focus upon it for too long.

Instead, she watched Xue Yaling – much like Song Ming was doing, a realisation that put a small smile on her worried face – and tried to copy any of the important actions that she took. When to touch any of the food or drink, and when to stand back up or sit back down in response to various people and things showing up. Presumably, some of those that were seated nearest to the throne at the back were important generals or members of Long Shiyi’s forces, and respecting them with some kind of gesture was to be expected.

Probably. She had managed to avoid most of the formal events her family had attended, so her guesses were based on a historical drama she’d seen once.

“Master Long Shiyi will be arriving shortly, but as always, we have been instructed to begin the feast early,” one of the generals sitting by the throne rose and announced, “Let us honour Her efforts and indulge in the resources she has provided us.”

Everyone bowed – they had stood up earlier for one reason or another, Bianca hadn’t been able to keep track of any of it – and returned to their seats, picking up chopsticks or knives to grab food and put some on their plates. Others reached for the jugs, pouring drinks into their cups, though all of them did so without much hesitation. That reassured her enough to reach for some food and drink of her own, grabbing whatever looked safely edible.

She was rather hungry after having very minimal meals on the ship, so she dug in swiftly, eating whatever came to her first. It took her a little while to realise that she might’ve been going a bit too intensely, but once she paused and looked around, it appeared that she might’ve been going slower than the rest.

“Song Ming-”

“Are you worried about not eating respectfully? I was looking at you, so I had a feeling you were concerned over something,” Song Ming admitted, speaking as quietly as she could while still being audible over all the noises of munching and chewing and clanging of plates, “It’s considered good manners to eat your fill and then leave some food behind, as it shows that it was more than sufficient.”

“Even when we’re serving ourselves?”

“I’d imagine so, it’s a very common thing, to the point that I was told about it even in our small village… Either way, the food is probably going to be fed to animals or just discarded if it’s not eaten, so you might as well do what you wish with the food,” she shrugged.

She also looked to Xue Yaling, who was sitting on the opposite side of her, but she just saw the kitsune stuffing her face with some kind of roasted bird leg – or wing, if the bird it came from was large enough – and putting even more on her plate. Her way of eating was absurdly messy when compared to the prim and proper appearance she liked to put up, though, after she quickly snuck some other part of what seemed to be the same bird into her own plate, she understood why.

‘Holy crap, this is… amazing. I have no idea what any of the ingredients are, but I have to get more of this…’ she looked at the rest of the roasted, possibly honeyed and most definitely seasoned bird and couldn’t stop herself from drooling, ‘I don’t know if there is any way to keep all this, but I want to keep all this…’

Nothing came to mind, so she simply settled on filling her stomach as much as she possible could.

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Xue Yaling had obviously noticed Bianca’s glance, the exchange those two had, and plenty of other details of what was happening in this place – including an older woman nearer the entrance of the tent whose servant silently slipped beneath the tables to eat her out – but she was more focused on the food she had ended up close to. Just like the rest of the food in this humongous tent, its main ingredient wasn’t some ordinary bird that any non-cultivator could catch without issue, but instead something that was often mistaken for a phoenix by such individuals.

A planar beast of the fourth realm, a Flaming Crow. Despite the name, it was a large thing, roughly the height of a human, but the most notable thing was the sheer amount of planar energy it contained, and also the fact that it was able to repel fire energy so well that it could endure the attacks of a fifth realm flame cultivator without moving a muscle.

Most of those properties would go away within moments if she was to eat the bird, even if she got all of it, but she didn’t expect to retain such phenomenal properties regardless. Instead, she wanted to support her integration of the next artefact shard, which she identified to be named Anathema.

Just like her Aureate Sword before it, Anathema had a property innate to the artefact it was broken away from, and one provided by the enhancement of the previous cultivator that used it. The main property was a rather lethal one to any cultivator, the ability to generate a field that negates planar energy within it. This meant that if she manifested it at the right moment, even if it could be broken in seconds, she would be able to have an opportunity to end the life of a cultivator of the same or higher realm without much effort on her part.

The enhancement was yet another one that took advantage of the innate property of Anathema. It would permit her to extract some of the energy negated and steal it for herself, being stored within Anathema for a certain period of time. Again, if used wisely, she might be able to cancel a powerful skill and use that energy to perform a retaliatory strike of her own, or perhaps even infuse an array with that energy to let it function at a greater level than usual.

There were many applications, and it was incredibly convenient to have something like it when opposing just about anyone that was a threat to her. The only ones who wouldn’t be weak to Anathema’s effects were non-cultivators or those at a far higher realm than her own, but the former couldn’t be a threat and the latter would still be affected to a minor degree, potentially earning her a chance at survival where she otherwise wouldn’t have a single one. As such, out of all the shards she had, integrating this one was best.

Thanks to attaining a cultivation in the Shard archetype, she didn’t need to guess blindly anymore, and so she selected the most universally applicable shard to integrate next. She might be able to acquire a total of three before her next breakthrough, so selecting anything with limited usefulness would be a total waste.

‘Since the energy of the Flaming Crow carries some of the same attributes, it ought to be easier to integrate the shard so long as it is within me. Now, I think I have about enough, so-’

“Attention! Stand for Master Long Shiyi, Great Dragon of Metal!”

‘… Shit.’

She dropped her food, quickly removed the hints of grease from her lips with ghostflame, and stood up, glaring at the two beside her to do the same. Luckily, Song Ming was already on high alert, the unfamiliar atmosphere seeming to get to her, whereas Bianca must’ve noticed the both of them and followed suit. It was fortunate, for the dragon didn’t delay her appearance in the slightest.

A figure no taller than the average woman entered the tent, thin and so frail looking that it felt as if she might fall over from the slightest breeze. Long iron-grey hair covered her back and rested on her medium-sized chest, revealing grey eyes that lacked all but the faintest spark of life. She wore a regal dress made of a metallic fabric and silver decorations, though it showed enough for everyone to see numerous scars upon her body, as well as iron scales on her arms and legs.

Nevertheless, this frail and weak-seeming person was stunning to behold, her face certainly failing to be average in any way. Even with one long scar running down her face, over the right eye, she looked absolutely gorgeous, and the rest of her body was also incredible to behold, not excessive in any regard and yet drawing attention nonetheless. Her skin was smooth and flawless – with even the scars managing to look somewhat neat – and her whole figure was perfectly balanced. She resembled a perfect sculpture of iron that gained sentience and chose to step off its podium and see the world around it.

In addition, Song Ming happened to recall a decently reliable description of what lay beneath the dress at the dragon’s groin. Like any other dragon, Long Shiyi was able to appear with both sets of genitals, and she chose to do so most of the time, meaning that even now she was likely to be hiding something quite impressive under her dress.

Her aura was a complex one. The quantity of power she had resembled the fifth realm, but the complexity and intensity of it certainly begged to differ. Furthermore, there was a faint trace of thin threads around her, akin to the manifestation of the sixth realm’s linked channels, and even a trace of blazing halos from the seventh realm. It certainly didn’t help in ascertaining exactly what realm she matched, seeing as the continued presence of those features would most certainly allow her to surpass anyone in the fifth and sixth realms trivially.

‘If I try doing this in front of her, she’ll notice, and she will most certainly try to get me closer to the fighting. That wouldn’t be a good idea if I want to keep my life, or if I want to make the most of Bianca or Song Ming…’ Xue Yaling thought, and stiffened when she felt the dragon’s gaze upon her for the briefest of moments, ‘Uh… I truly hope I’m not wrong in assuming the rumours about her cultivating spiritual perception to be false…’

It was possible to refine one’s mental energy to a certain extent, and although few ever made it far, it was claimed by some that it was possible to reach the realm of reading thoughts with ease, manifesting mental energy in a manner akin to divine sense or even planar energy, and more.

Xue Yaling and most others with even a hint of insight didn’t consider such things to be especially credible, but it was most certainly possible to read minds. It required divine sense and for the target to have never cultivated – at least in the confirmed cases – but Long Shiyi might well meet the former requirement, and if she had some ability unique to dragons or had simply discovered a way of refining spiritual perception further… well, it would mean that each and every thought the kitsune had might be visible to the dragon before her.

‘Not just mine, but just about anyone’s… That is rather dangerous, though likely untrue…’

There were no mentions of Long Shiyi at her prime being able to read minds quite so casually, so it was probably just her panicking for no good reason. Still, it was a little too coincidental.

“I see all of you are enjoying yourselves. I expect you to be as eager to lay down your lives against that sentient piece of cloth,” she said quietly, but everyone heard her without issue, freezing uncomfortably, “And suddenly you’re all so meek. The lot of you have no balls.”

She sighed, put her hands behind her back, and strode forward confidently, walking past row after row of tables as if she was simply walking through her own home. In a way, this whole place was her home, and her last bastion of defence against the Exarch. If she couldn’t keep this place within her grasp, she would effectively be doomed. Everyone that gathered here were loyal to Long Shiyi, whether they wanted to be or not, and thus she was in no danger, either.

The dragon reached her throne, turned around, and sat down, grasping the draconic armrests and looking out upon the ‘hall’. She took her time looking around, examining those who were standing at her bidding, and smiled. Her gaze passed over Xue Yaling and the two beside her a second time, seeming to stall yet again, though not long enough that the kitsune couldn’t dismiss it as coincidence.

She took her sweet time, and she likely knew full well that even if she didn’t do anything for hours, nobody would have the courage to interrupt her.

‘Damn, I wish I’d been born as someone so mighty I could just fuck all day and still be at the top of the world… though, of course, Long Shiyi did more than that. To be jealous of her in that regard would be stupid… and I doubt I’ll have as great a fall as she does if planar energy declines further,’ the kitsune thought, glancing towards her own body and comparing it to the dragon’s, ‘Back in the day, she must’ve been utterly flawless in appearance and power, and now… Now even Bianca might be able to catch up to her realm if we can somehow claim the Weave of the Senses.’

That was rather unlikely, of course, but it was possible. And if it was possible, then they might as well go for it. To begin with, someone like Bianca was rare enough as it was, especially if the kitsune understood her origin correctly, so they might as well try.

“Well then. Sit down and keep going.”

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