Chapter 96

  When the Heavens Weep (I)

  I was just about to tell the kids to get back inside while I went down the mountain and to the Elder Hall to investigate when the space itself seemed to warp in front of me and a figure stepped in.

  Shockingly, it was Spirit Sage.

  I froze up a bit, uncertain as to what the hell he was doing here, but he seldom paid me any attention. Instead, he merely glanced at the house for a moment, nodded, and... disappeared.

  Eh?

  What was that?

  It sort of felt like a farmer checking up on the chicks or something. Creepy.

  Alright, fine, keep thinking they'll be yours, you old bastard. I still have to descend the mountain--

  Oh, for the love of God!

  Elder Qin appeared at the top of a flying sword as he quickly descended from the skies and kicked up a small whirlwind of dust. I just barely avoided inhaling a lungful of it, though I did get a nice, brilliant covering of brown all over my robes. So, yeah, thanks for that, old jackass.

  Yet, I couldn't even put up a voice of indignation--the old man's expression stopped me. It was heavy and dark and so somber that it pressed down on me.

  "Here," he stopped by my side and handed me yet another ring. This one was even smoother and more adorned, and before I could even offer a refusal, he closed my hand for me. "Hide it. Take the kids with you and go back around the mountain. You will find a strange illusionary barrier--the key to breaking it is in the ring. Once you're past it, continue through the thickets of the woods and up the mountain, descending only when you reach the plateau with the statue on it.

  "Keep straight during the descent. Once you emerge on the other end, travel north. After about six days of travel, you'll come across a mortal town. There, you can rest for a little while. After that... find a way, any way, to get over the Heaven-Piercing Peaks and go as far east as your legs will take you. Do you understand?"

  Uh, yes, I very much understand that you're giving me direct instructions on how not to die, but it's all happening too abruptly!

  "Yes, I--"

  The bright flash of light was the first. Well, just 'bright' is vastly underselling it--it was the brightest thing that I'd ever seen in my entire life, and I accidentally opened a light-themed website on my phone at 3 A.M.

  It seemed to erupt from nowhere and consume everything in its path, like a maw awoken to devour the world.

  After the light came a slight treble, and after it came the sound.

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  I immediately felt my ears pop and burst, and pain the likes of which I hadn't experienced in a long, long time shot through my entire body. Like an invisible sword being repeatedly jammed in every inch of me.

  After the sound came the shockwave.

  It was so brutally overwhelming that I saw rooftops being ripped from the frames and tossed any which way like they were made of sponge. The trees were dug out of their roots, the stalls dismantled down to the tiny pieces of fabric, and the entire mountain was seemingly being lacerated from inside out.

  Just as I thought the invisible wind would split me in half, I saw Elder Qin move in front of me and rapidly erect a barrier of light that repelled the surging energy with seeming ease.

  "How dare they...!!" He grunted at the same time as I felt my knees give out... yet I forced myself to stand.

  It hurt.

  Jesus Christ, did it hurt.

  Despite him blocking the brunt of it, the tiny pieces of debris were still flung everywhere, and quite a lot of them cut me. Wounds were tiny, sure, but once there were like a thousand of them, they burned like a bitch. Not to mention the pain from my eyes that had already climbed up into my brain.

  I caught the glimpse of a thousand arrays of light erupting suddenly down in the valley. Some were made of fire, some of misty haze, but they all started flying out and clashing as though in perfect harmony. The ensuing explosions were marvelous in ways that I cannot even begin to describe; the colors they produced, the sheer capacity for destruction... they all left me awed and dumbstruck.

  "ELDER LU!!" Elder Qin's voice finally got to me as he shook me awake.

  "Y-yes...?"

  "Pull yourself together! Ah, dammit!" Yet another explosion blew out, collapsing an entire mountain.

  No, that's not an exaggeration--I watched a mountain that was easily four thousand feet tall slowly crumble and fall, like a sandcastle on the beach.

  Holy shit.

  It's finally hitting me.

  I... I didn't really have a good idea of what a 'war' would entail. I mean, you hear 'war' and you think 'bad', sure, but this... this is akin to watching your city be pelted by bombs over and over again, and yet somehow even more terrifying because at least there was a finite number of bombs they could toss at you, but this... it feels like it could go on forever.

  "DUCK!!" He pulled me down just in time to dodge a sweltering piece of a roof that had been torched ablaze and hurled toward us, whether by accident or intention.

  It blew into the mountain behind us, causing a rumbling that saw the cracks web out from the point of collision. I knew that the damned thing wasn't long for this world and finally came to.

  This wasn't the time to be terrified or to be in awe or to shit myself--this is the time to run.

  "Dammit," I stumbled to my feet and quickly popped a healing pill from the spatial ring. "Is everyone alright?!"

  I rushed over to the house and saw the three youngbloods huddled together while Long Tao and Hua seemed to have kept any straying debris away. The house was midway through the collapse, its left side entirely torn down.

  "We're fine," Long Tao voiced.

  "Okay, come on. We're going."

  "We're leaving?" Light voiced out. "Aren't we going to fight?"

  "... no, we're leaving," I said, wondering whether I'd have to have someone knock her out. Oh, do I so not want to ask anyone to knock out a six-year-old child...

  "Okay." Oh, thank God. She just nodded, seeming fine either way.

  "Come on, come on," I ushered them out of the collapsing building and into the open, glancing back in horror.

  There, I saw Elder Qin fighting six people--all old stooges not unlike himself. His sword flashed madly in every direction, ripping through the spacetime itself and suddenly finding its way to the head of one of the people he was fighting, lopping it off clean.

  "YOU BASTARD!" somebody cursed, and I just about rolled my eyes. I thought cliches like that wouldn't actually exist, but apparently I was wrong. How dare we defend ourselves, am I right?

  Elder Qin suddenly pulled back, and I watched Qi form visibly around him like tendrils, pulling toward the sword that started to glow and buzz.

  "... run." It wasn't me that said it--it was actually Long Tao.

  He tossed Light over his shoulders, Hua did the same for Dai Xiu, and I, not wanting to be left out, did the same to Xi Zhao--despite his protests.

  I had no idea why he told us to run--but if Long Tao said it... then I really don't want to stay here and bear witness to it.