Chapter 129

  Echoes (V)

  "Here we are," Old Zemin announced just as we stepped past a strangely shaped rock that curved into an arch, as though embodying a strange, natural gate.

  The world suddenly shifted, colors and shapes distorting for a brief moment before it all came back into full view. Dozens of tents sprang up around a massive clearing, with smokes of flames arising every few feet, and the hubbub of hundreds of souls coming alive.

  They were all carefully arranged around the central area, where a set of seemingly random stones jutted out of the ground, though vaguely in the shape of a building. Over it was a thin sheen of red, pulsing like a heartbeat, each pulse radiating out a faint hum of sound and energy and revealing strange runes--though changing which ones with every pulse.

  Three things became apparent quickly: one, we were not welcome here. Two, seriously, we were not welcome here.

  And three--I'm pretty sure someone just tried to kill me, and had Old Zemin not stepped in to block it, I might be lying on the ground, dead, right about now.

  "Old Zemin bastard, why are you bringing strangers here? Do you want us to kill you?!" Someone barked at him.

  "Yahu'er, show the guests to an empty tent." He turned to the young woman and spoke with a faint smile, though as soon as he turned his head elsewhere, the faint smile was gone, and in its stead was chill.

  "You just tried to murder a personal guest of mine," he said. "An affront that even the Gods do not tolerate. Step out, Xiang, and face me in a duel to death."

  His words not only sent a shockwave through me but also everyone here. Gasps rang out and eyes widened in shock, and even the man being challenged staggered backward, likely not having expected it. The latter seemed to be in his sixties, broadly built like an ox, with shoulders the width of a freakin' car. No, seriously, he'd be benching trucks and not pounds back on Earth.

  "Are you insane, old man? Do you intend to start a war between our sects because of some wayside vermin?"

  "War between sects? You certainly do count yourself quite important. I will personally visit your Master to offer an explanation, along with your head, so you should not worry about sects and waging wars. Merely make your peace and clean your neck, you indelicate idiot."

  Hey.

  Despite being ushered to some tent, we all stopped, interested in the affairs; the young woman didn't seem worried and was more excited than anything else, truth be told, as was I. I'd seen battles between experts a couple of times, but this would be an old-fashioned duel!

  I doubt I'll be able to follow it with my eyes, but...

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  Then again, to be fully honest, I don't think they'll fight. Right now the atmosphere is about eighteen billion degrees below zero, but any second now someone will step out with the cliche 'Hey now, you two, let's not fight; Xiang, apologize, bla bla bla', you know how it goes.

  So, all I gotta do is wait.

  ... wait for the duel to start because, what the hell, the old man Zemin just attacked straight out of nowhere?!!

  The man called Xiang roared, using Qi to swell his body to twice its size--he now stood nearly twelve feet tall and probably weighed at least a ton.

  He punched so fast and so hard that I couldn't follow--only faintly grasp the scattering of Qi that cracked the void briefly. So much energy was released, but, luckily, a whole heap of people appeared in a wide circle around the two and erected some kind of a barrier that blocked most of it.

  Old man Zemin, however, appeared unperturbed by the punch; he merely ducked sideways and dodged it, whipping out a pair of strange-seeming daggers and beginning an onslaught!... that lasted about three seconds, which was when the massive body toppled, causing a mini quake, while Old Zemin held a decapitated head still bleeding in his hand.

  How he did it... yeah, I've got no idea. It was mostly just a blur--and the next thing I see is this scene right here.

  "Tsk, Xiang really is an idiot; who doesn't know Old Zemin had been looking for an excuse to kill him for decades now, ever since he nearly killed Old Zemin's disciple?" Luckily, people with ready-made commentary about the situation were nearby, just close enough for me to hear it.

  "She wasn't killed," the young woman elaborated, her voice called. "She was assaulted for ten nights straight and committed suicide soon after she was rescued. Though it was practically common knowledge that he did it, there wasn't enough evidence, and Sister Ru never made a claim either way, so there was little we could do about it."

  Hey, not like I was going to lose sleep over his death either way--the bastard did try to kill me, after all.

  Speaking of death, something strange happened soon after--the body began to disintegrate, as the ground beneath it seemed to writhe like a living thing, slowly encasing it and consuming it. Within a minute, it was gone.

  Nobody else reacted--or, at least, they reacted to it as though they'd seen it a thousand times before, which I imagine is exactly the case. If we were weaker, and those 'bandits' that intercepted us did their jobs, would we be just like that man? Daggers sliced across our throats, left to bleed out and die so that some devil-spawn in some ancient tomb can awaken?

  ... if it were up to me, we would have never come here. I'm not even truly sure why we have come here--I don't believe for a second Long Tao is doing it for some altruistic reasons of 'killing the demon before it has a chance to run amok'. There's something he can gain from this place, but at what cost?

  "Come on, this way," the young woman's voice--Xing Yahui, I learned--dragged me to reality as she led us past the scrutinizing eyes and toward one of the high-pitched tents.

  It looked like nylon, but it wasn't--it was rough to touch, like leather, but if nothing else, it was 'professionally' pitched.

  "Junior Sister, who are they?" A young man's voice drew my attention over. He looked to be in his late twenties to early thirties, tall and slender with a lean frame.

  By all metrics, he was quite handsome-looking--square jaw, bright eyes, long, smooth hair—but there was something about him that immediately didn't sit well with me.

  "Elder's guests, Senior Brother," and judging by the young woman's voice, she likely felt the same way. "He's asked me to escort them to our spare tent."

  "Oh. Very well." He barely looked at me, though his gaze did linger on the girls, just a touch too long. "Once you're done, find us at the Stone. Apparently, Ghostblade found some traces of Hollowers, so we're gathering a group to go and verify it."

  "Hm," she nodded as he turned around and left, his gait unhurried and aloof.

  "Sister Xing," Dai Xiu spoke up as the man left our eyeline. "Is that your husband?"

  "H-huh? What are you talking about? Of course not."

  "Hm," Dai Xiu seemed a bit disappointed--hey, no, wait a second... what is happening here?!

  What the hell did I miss?!