Chapter 9: Chapter 9: The Blade Master

“Where are we going now?” Yaihan asked as Midnight carried him and Koya across the battlefield. Bodies of both humans and Onis lay scattered across the ground, but the surviving Xiwaoans vastly outnumbered the remaining demons. 

“You don’t mind having to do a little bit of cleanup duty, do you?” Koya said as she turned her head back just enough to look at Yaihan. He focused on a skirmish situated halfway between the camp and the bridge that was just destroyed. 

“I can handle it.” The cultivator extended one hand and pointed towards a pair of Oni to the horse’s left. They swung their swords at a compact figure at the ground. “There. To your left. What’s going on?”

The kunoichi turned her head. “Fei-Lu!” she exclaimed as she pulled hard on Midnight’s reins, making the horse take a sharp turn. 

“Your leader? She’s fighting by herself?”

“She can handle two Onis at once. Fei-Lu is a Blade Master, after all. But she usually has a set of bodyguards with her at all times. They must have been killed in battle, leaving her to fend for herself.” 

Yaihan squinted his eyes and got a better view of the fight up ahead. Two Onis with axes swung at a petite woman. Their exaggerated movements and erratic swinging showed their frustration. The finer details of the woman weren’t clear from the distance, but her movement was graceful. She jumped over swings and dodged slashes while using a pair of swords to slash away at the Onis’ flesh with each missed attack. Scattered around were the bodies of Xiwaoan soldiers, chopped to bits in indiscernible bloody messes. 

“Get Midnight as close to the battle as possible,” Yaihan said, ready to dismount the horse. “I’ll make sure she survives this fight.”

“All right. But there’s something you should know about Fei-Lu.” Koya pulled back on the reins and Midnight slowed down.

“Yes?”

“She can be a bit prideful. I have a feeling that she won’t come off as too appreciative of you coming in and taking her kills.”

“I’m sure she’ll manage.”

Once Midnight came to a complete stop, Yaihan hopped off the horse and focused on one demon. He got into another crouch, aiming his body to land on his chest. But as Fei-Lu fought with the pair of Onis, she continued to leap around, constantly changing her position and forcing the demons to move quickly to respond. 

“Are you going to land on one of them like how you did last time?” Koya asked.

“They’re moving too much. I might kill Fei-Lu by accident.”

“Looks like we’re running then.”

Both Yaihan and Koya sprinted to the battle. The kunoichi led the race, coming within talking range of the army’s leader first. “Fei-Lu!” Koya shouted as she spun the sickle on her rope. “I’ve brought back up!” The kunoichi threw weapon and hooked the rear side of a demon’s shoulder. She pulled her rope and the Oni toppled backwards, dropping his weapon as he fell.

Fei-Lu soared through the air, jumping high enough that her body turned into a silhouette as she crossed the sun. She landed with grace on top of the fallen demon, her feet gently resting on his chest. The woman woman stood confidently, holding a long and curved blade in each hand as she stared at the demon with scorn. 

The tactician’s black hair formed a tidy knot behind her head, creating short loops just below the ears while her bangs rustled in the wind. She wore a long, gray flowing dress with luminous gold trim that split into separate slits, revealing her thighs. A transparent veil wrapped around her arms and connected to the top of her dress. On her neck was a matching gray and gold scarf that flowed with a breeze. Long and elegant boots reached halfway to her hips. And resting on her head was an ornate, golden tiara. 

“What were you doing up north?” Fei-Lu asked Koya. Despite her petite frame, the woman’s voice was commanding. “I told you to escort the frontline infantry back to camp!” The tactician crossed both of her swords on both sides of the demon’s neck before closing them like a pair of scissors. The Oni beneath her stopped squirming as a stream of black blood left his headless body. 

“The demons were eliminated,” Koya said as she pulled out the hook from the demon’s shoulder. The remaining Oni looked at the two Purifiers with fear. His hands shook as he held his axe defensively, unsure which woman would be the first to attack. “So I had to improvise on what to do next.”

“Without my orders, Koya?” Fei-Lu raised an eyebrow as she gave the kunoichi a scolding glare. 

“You know I can handle myself, Fei-Lu,” Koya replied with a huff. She focused on the demon first, throwing her sickle low so it hooked into the Oni’s ankle. “You were on the other side of the battle! You expected me to meet you all the way over there just to ask what to do next?” The kunoichi then vanished in a puff of smoke before reappearing to the demon’s left. He swung his axe to the side once she entered his sight, only for her to vanish once more before his axe’s blade could hit her. 

“We don’t have the luxury to make brash decisions,” Fei-Lu said coldly. “This camp is the last hope for Xiwao. Any mistake and not only will this nation fall, but quite likely the rest of the world.”

The kunoichi reappeared on the demon’s other side. He fumbled his axe into this other hand, clumsily swinging it around in a vain attempt to hit the fleeing Koya. “I know, I know. You say this every day!” Koya replied with a roll of her eyes. She held her weapon with both hands and darted towards the tactician. The rope wrapped around the demon’s legs and a fierce pull from the kunoichi sent him stumbling forwards before falling face-down in front of Fei-Lu. 

You are reading story Oni Buster: The Prodigious Cultivator Returns to a Demon Apocalypse at novel35.com

With her eyes still angrily looking at Koya, Fei-Lu plunged one of her swords into the center of the demon’s head. Despite the Oni no longer being a threat, the tactician stabbed her other sword into the top of the enemy’s head, turning his skull into a sheath so she could cross her arms. “I have to say it every day because you never seem to listen!”

“Oh, yeah?” Koya snapped back as she pointed at Yaihan. “If I had listened to your plan, then we wouldn’t have stopped three marauders from escaping and revealing our camp’s location to the Oni-Zhen leaders!”

Fei-Lu turned her head towards the cultivator. She squinted and tilted her eyes, staring at him with a mix of confusion and aversion. “You.” Fei-Lu curled one finger and pointed to herself. “Come here. I need to have a talk with you.”

Yaihan obeyed the tactician’s order. He caught up with the group and greeted Fei-Lu with a bow. “What is it you wanted to discuss?”

Still with an irked look, Fei-Lu rested her hands on her hips and looked at Yaihan from the bottom up. “I have never seen you at camp before. Where do you come from?”

“Jing-Gwo,” he said calmly.

Fei-Lu shook her head before turning her annoyance towards Koya. “This is your reinforcement? Either this man is daft or delusional. You heard what he said, correct?”

The kunoichi readied a response until Yaihan stepped in. “Might I ask, what was wrong with my answer?”

“I’ll give you the benefit of assuming that you’ve been injured in battle. Or perhaps some trauma has clouded your memory. But Jing-Gwo stopped being a municipality years ago. About seven or so. Merged into the Greater Xiwao Empire.”

“Sorry I didn’t know. I was never much into politics.”

Fei-Lu chortled with disgust. “Now of all times you choose to be prideful over a petty territorial dispute that ended years ago.” She put one hand on Yaihan’s shoulder and pointed at the pile of bodies that lay behind him. “As you can see, there are more pressing matters to worry about! Almost all of Xiwao has been conquered by demons! And here you are... bitter over something that no one has thought about for over half a decade!”

“Calm down, Fei-Lu,” Koya said. “I know he’s not much at first glance, but Yaihan is what we need to turn this war around.”

“Have you been drinking from the latrine water? Unless he holds some secret information that can take us to the heart of the Oni-Zhen’s dominion, this man is just another soldier!” She lifted a spear from the ground and placed it in Yaihan’s hand. “If you truly want to make yourself useful, take this weapon and fight to your last breath. Countless other Xiwaoans have given their lives. It’s time for you to do the same.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I won’t be needing this.” Yaihan carefully handed the weapon back to Fei-Lu. The tactician pouted, stomped her foot and turned to face her the corpse holding her swords. 

“The punishment for disobedience is starvation,” Fei-Lu said as he placed her hands on the hilts of her blades. With a fierce tug, she removed both weapons out of the demon’s skull. “That goes for both of you. No rations for two days. We have barely enough as it is. There’s not enough to go around for those that choose to put the lives of their fellow Xiwaoans at risk for the sake of pride!”

With Fei-Lu’s back still turned, Koya snuck in a roll of her eyes. She leaned towards cultivator and whispered in his ear. “Show her what you’re capable of, Yaihan. I’m sure she’ll change her tone once she sees what you can do to an Oni skull with a single punch.”

Yaihan nodded. He stood next to Fei-Lu who still stood over the slain Oni. She maintained her angered demeanor as he took a fighting stance. Yaihan pulled one fist back, ready to strike the corpse.

“You might want to take a few steps back, Fei-Lu!” Koya called out. “I know how much you hate getting Oni blood all over that Ensemble of yours!”

“What?” the tactician turned her head around. “What are you talking ab—”

A single jab made the demon’s head explode. Black blood scattered across the dry ground. Crimson chunks of flesh and bits of bone landed on the front of Fei-Lu’s dress. She paused to look at the gore that dripped from her Ensemble before slowly lifting her head up to look at the scene before her. The Oni’s upper body caved in while a black crater in the dirt was in place of his head. 

“I warned you!” Koya said with a wink as she brushed off a hairy chunk of the demon’s scalp from Fei-Lu’s shoulder with a flick of her hand. “Do you believe me now?”

---

Art Spotlight: Fei-Lu Yong

 

You can find story with these keywords: Oni Buster: The Prodigious Cultivator Returns to a Demon Apocalypse, Read Oni Buster: The Prodigious Cultivator Returns to a Demon Apocalypse, Oni Buster: The Prodigious Cultivator Returns to a Demon Apocalypse novel, Oni Buster: The Prodigious Cultivator Returns to a Demon Apocalypse book, Oni Buster: The Prodigious Cultivator Returns to a Demon Apocalypse story, Oni Buster: The Prodigious Cultivator Returns to a Demon Apocalypse full, Oni Buster: The Prodigious Cultivator Returns to a Demon Apocalypse Latest Chapter