“So, what will you do with her?” Daiyu asked me, as we looked down on the gibbering, injured woman. Her eyes wide and her mouth in a rictus grin of madness, she spat at me, but I easily stepped aside from the bloody, silvery spittle. “I trust you are aware being merciful is folly? She attempted to kill us, and her ability is dangerous.”

  “I know.” I let out a long sigh. I get it now. “No, while finishing her off quickly is important…” as I mentioned finishing her off the woman flinched, and her angry expression ged, being more wheedling. The blood flowing from the stumps of her arms was starting to slow, but her body was beginning to burn with purple energies, which definitely felt Spatial in nature.

  “Please, I was… I was wrong.” She gasped out, somehow managing to roll onto her stomach. It was strange how quickly she ged her tune, from cold, bored hatred, to insane chittering, and now to what she likely assumed was seductive begging. “I don’t want to die. I never did. That’s why I had no choice. I’m beien alive, if you kill me… ugh, it would be such a drag being food. A fate really worse thah. I’ve seen it…” her eyes were mad, and I wondered if her crazed behaviht have something to do with what she’d endured. Seeing my eyes softening a little, Daiyu elbowed me tiredly in the side, remindi to fall for it, but the woman g to any shard of hope.

  “Wao kiss and lick your feet? I’ll do it if you somehow save me from beien!” She stuck out her torying to squirm towards me with her bleeding stumps. “I’ll liything else you want! My arms… I’ll even five you for taking them. If you get me servants and keep me in fort, I’ll let you use me however you want. However you want.” Her tongue was moving sciviously, and there was a dark shadow in her eyes, even as her body was burning away. She screamed, spitting blood.

  “This woman is beyond saving. Her mind has gone. Best to end her suffering. That is the only mercy you should afford her. You must make haste, no? While you dey, others are fighting.”

  The woman ged again, back to bitter madness, and she started screaming abuse at Daiyu, calling her a whore and worse, intermixed with screaming wails and sobs. Ign that, I bent down over her, my Eye glowing. The ce was too important to pass up. “I’ll try and save you from being devoured…” I whispered. “… but first, shut. Up.” At my cold tohe woman froze. “Daiyu’er is no loose woman, she’s a proud Cultivator, a warrior. A seeker of vengeance. Don’t tar her with your brush. Now, choose quickly. I doubt you’ll live, but… I want to remove your Divine Favour. Doing so, I’ll also clear the poison that’s dev you.”

  “You … do that? Wait, I’ll die?” she said, back tuid, depressed state, her moods mercurial.

  “Probably. You’re in bad shape, and I’m about to do radical surgery. But at least you won’t be food.”

  “Wait, wait!” she cried. ”If I live, I’m dead anyway! My body will be bleeding out, all alone underground!”

  “Underground, huh?” I said, intrigued. For a moment she looked pained she had spoken, before physical agony once more overwhelmed her.

  “Yes, I’ll tell you where we are hiding! I will!” she sobbed. “But… in exge, if I survive, you have to look after me for the rest of my life! Asylum! From a, and that… that hideous beast!” she begged. “Servants so I live my life without arms, prosthetics, whatever… you keep me as a mistress, a sve! Just… don’t leave me to die!” Tears were dropping from her eyes, ae her obvious malice, I was a little moved by her cries. But I didn’t evehe elbow from Daiyu again to know what I had to do.

  “All right. Tell Daiyu’er while I work. If you live through this, we’ll e a you.” Though you’ll still have to ao Japanese w. If you make it through that, then I’ll set you up with a modest life. But…

  Hope fred in her eyes, warring with pain and madness. She began to gasp out words to the disapproving Daiyu, as I began to form multiple bdes of aether, tinged with adherence. I see. They buried themselves underground, and used several abilities together to get both people and ons to the Boundary. It’s really ingenious. These bone bdes though…

  The woman, who I realised I had never even asked her name, screamed. The slime within was fighting me, horrible transparent jelly, flecked with dirty yellments of the same sort of bohat was prising the bdes we had destroyed. Even so, my skills with Chirurgery were pretty good, so soon I ulling out ks of it, burning it with Foehn. I even applied a little Ether Healing, just enough to keep her alive. I see, it seems that most of the slime is trated around the heart and chakras, as well as even more around the Divine Favour. The Divine Favour was located below her third eye chakra, and it was starting to crumble apart at the edges, adherence, aether and something else even my Eye couldn’t dis pulled from it and ferried away by the spatial element the goo was leaking. Well, we ’t be having that, we?

  “Wait, Luo Jiahao?” Daiyu said, surprised. “The Patriarch of the Mountain Fang? He’s in charge?”

  It seemed Daiyu knew one of the people involved quite well, but even with my Split Thoughts, this was difficult work. I had cleared out most of the goo, though the additional damage it had inflicted on the woman would have been fatal without some Ether Healing. As I worked, the st lifted free, and as Foehn bur, her eyes went wide. “Wait, the dev… it’s… it’s stopped?” she muttered, incredulous.

  “Yes. It was some sort of parasite, dev you and sending your energy somewhere. It almost felt like some sort of y or hive mind…” I had a little experieh that, thanks to Duke Myrcoxriath and his Myid puppets.

  “Then the creature of slime Master Luo holds is…” Daiyu realised it as well.

  “Also the creature. It seems that its body is one anism, even when separated. Ingenious.” I admired. “If still disgusting.”

  “So, I’ve survived then?” the maimed woman said hopefully. “I worried I…”

  Don’t look at me like that, Daiyu. I know. “The first part. Now…” I looked down with some sympathy, but also resolve. “You have to give up your Divine Favour. You used it for ill, coerced or not, and you have to pay for your sins. Shouldn’t you know that, sidering what your ability was?”

  “I… wait, we talk about…” she began, only to shudder as I began to carve away at the Favour within her. It resisted fiercely, strings of adherence, aether and a third substance fighting me, and when I cut them carelessly, the Favour suffered further damage. My tration was exerted to its peak, the world around me fading away, as I tried to unlock this fiendish puzzle. I o practice. If I ever o remove the Favour from someone safely, then this experience will be valuable…

  With a final wrench I pulled free the Divine Favour, an amber message scrolling ay vision. My focus diminishing, I looked down at the object I held, shimmering and crag, a mist of aether and adherence rising. I g the woman, but she had died, her maimed and partially devoured body uo take the shock of separation. Seeing where I was looking, Daiyu put her hand on my shoulder awkwardly.

  “It was for the best. She died as herself, that is a better end than she could have hoped for. If you had time to spend, then maybe she could have been saved, but there are victims here who deserve your aid, not the perpetrators. After all, have you not someoo protect?”

  I agreed, touched that she was trying to e, rather clumsily, but I appreciated the ses. Pg my hand over hers, I grinned, and it was genuine. Yeah, it doesn’t feel good, knowing she died, just so I could take her Favour, but… Tsukiko-san is right. Some things are meant to be. And for Tsukiko-san, or any of the didates in Kyoto, a hundred of her wouldn’t be a fair trade… if I want to prevent having to make such trades in future, then more strength is what I need, which is why I did this…

  “I shall return to the Territory of yhost woman.” Daiyu decred, her wounds slowly healing. “I will be a liability for you now.” She looked down, aggrieved, but not pulling her hand away. “It paihat I am so weak, but…” her dark eyes were resolute. “I shall obtain strength.”

  “I know you will. Perhaps we talk about Spiritually Pure Physique when this is all over?”

  “When this is over, yes…” she looked at me theo eye. “… when this is over, I will strive to bee a worthy Matriarch of the Incorruptible Jade. Perhaps I will even find some worthy disciples in this nd, amongst your colleagues. And there are… secrets… to share. That should remai no loeiques, Arts…”

  “I’ll support you with anything you need.” I promised. “Now, I have to hurry, this has already taken too long.”

  “Anything? I see. I appreciate it.” She smiled then, the first natural one I had seen on her face since we had met. Pulling her hand from my grip, she bowed deeply. “I will be in your care then, Akio. For now, I shall share the informatioracted from this woman…” she eyed the slowly disiing corpse. “… and help in the defence when I have recovered enough Qi. I am the Bck Jade that Remains Unbroken. Yes, I prefer that title.”

  With that she left, heading back towards safer Territory, leavih my prize. All right, time to this up quick.

  Damaged Idlurugu’s Mirror Of Ordeals: Css: [Legendary] Type: [Law]. This Divine Favour was made of trated adherence, refiher and ??????????, though due to several sources of damage, it is partially funal, and if left unattended, will return to Idlurugu. The ability to reflect sins both real and imagined and for ordeal of bat upon the reflected o longer be used. To fae’s sins by an ordeal is to overe them a free, but not all that is reflected in the mirror of the waters is as it seems.

  “So it wasn’t King Yama after all…” I muttered. “… trial by ordeal, huh? It was certainly that. But not all that is reflected is as it seems, huh? No kidding…”

  I really o do more resear Gods and Goddesses. I’ve never heard of Idlurugu. This time though, I had gathered more information. This Favour was merely damaged, whether that was because it had suffered less erosion, or whether I pulled it out of a live person… even so, it wasn’t useable in its current state, though I had more informatiarding its Css and Type. It could probably be repaired, usiher, adherend whatever the third ingredient is… but for now, that isn’t viable. ime though… I closed my fist, trating, and the Favour shattered, p strength into me. ime, I’ll find it easier to extract, I hope…

  You have gained in strength. Your level has increased from One Hundred And Twelve to One Hundred And Fourteen. All of your Material statistics have increased by twenty-two. Aether has increased by fifty-four.

  I immediately gained a pair of levels as the aether and adherence surged into me. I had previously levelled on three occasions, oer beating the mirror version of myself, twice after burning the Ice wielder to death, and once again after the woman died as I extracted her Divine Favour, which I had now absorbed the remnants of. Killing other didates seems awfully profitable. If this is a giant Gu Vessel, as I expect, then I’m the poisonous ihat’s been dev several others, my venom growing stronger. But what choice did I have?

  s over whether other didates around the world had realised the same and were killing each other off for such gains flickered through my mind, but I dismissed those thoughts. It wasn’t the time for it. After all, that’s why I am w with the Gover, to stop Japan going down such a hellish route. If it es to levelling, there are other, better ways.

  Your Skill, Sacral Chakra Of High Moonlight Spirit Water has advanced from Rank 3 to Rank 4. Your Sacral Chakra now gees signifitly more water energy and creates High Moonlight Spirit Water with improved efficy.

  Abs the energy from the Divine Favour had pushed it over the limit, and I immediately noticed the difference. Prior to this, my Fme Manipution and Sor Plexus Chakra of Fme had both broken the first wall and reached Rank 6, along with Foehn, and my Root Chakra Of Earth had reached Rank 5. I felt I was close to my Lunar Chakra growing as well, and my abilities to manipute wind, water ah were also starting to e together, my uanding greatly increased by using the four primary elements all at once, intergeably.

  “Well, I’ve tarried here long enough. I o reach the defensive li Kinkaku-ji…” with that I raced off, looking over my updated status sheet as I went.

  With the gain in levels in Wielder of a Mutated Element, and Wielder of Elements, Cssic Western, my ability to produd wield elemental energies has further grown. I still have gging areas, my on skills have stagnated, as have my crafting ohough I’m hopeful of breakthroughs in those whe some pead quiet, but…

  It was then I sensed movement, and I readied Cutting Twilight, only to pause dumbfounded as several weak-looking people were rushing towards me, one of them a young kid, the other an old woman. On seeihey started screaming, turning around to ruher way. I quickly moved and grabbed them, and the old woman covered her head, screaming for me not to kill her.

  “Kill you? What do you mean? I won’t kill you! How did you get here?” I asked.

  “I don’t even know where here is! I thought I might be dreaming, but…” she bit her lip, scared, and the boy had wailed himself to silence.

  “Are there others?” I asked, having a terrible feeling, and she nodded.

  “There were, so many. I thought it strange, but then…” her teeth were chattering, she was so scared. “… they started attag us. There was blood everywhere. Strange silver blood. We ran… wait, who are you?” she asked, and I shook my head, releasing her.

  “I’m w with the Gover.” I assured them. “There’s a lot of us about, trying to solve the situation.” I’d love to take them to safety, but there’s simply no time. Luckily the path back should be clear… before I could tell them where to go, a figure ran our way, wearing Cultivator-style robes. On seeing the civilians, his expression tensed, before he noticed me and froze.

  His fists and his robe are soaked with blood. “So, and who might you be?” I motioo the terrified people to get behind me. “And more importantly… you’re awfully bloody, friend.” I said in Mandarin.

  “You speak uage?” he paused. “Well, no matter. It’s too te. There is n baow!” he rushed at me, and I tried to get further information.

  “You’re a Cultivatht? Which Sect? Mountain Fang, or…” the first Sect I mentioned must have been a hit, as he stumbled, pausing.

  “How do you know my Sect?” he asked warily. “You are not one of us. Are you reinforts? No…” he eyed the two sheltered behind me. “If you were, you would have killed those poor wretches we dragged to this pce like the others, just like the pn called for. There is no room for any sot when…”

  I moved, my speed far in excess of the man. He was uo react, and coughed blood, a silver and crimson spray scattering from his mouth. The moment he had admitted ting i people to the Boundary to kill them, my mind was made up. Though… as the amber light of my Eye dimmed down, the shimmering bdes of aether I was wielding dispersing, I poured a little Foehn into the vile slime I had removed from the Cultivator. As it burned I watched him die, as I had no time nor ination to be merciful. “… you should be thankful I removed the corrupting slime before you died…”

  Behihe old woman gasped, holding the weeping child close. Her face ale, seeing me casually killing a person, but drawing in i ued people was too mue tive. My Eye fred back to life, and I nodded calmly. “I see. Dragged to this pce… it makes sense now.” As I approached, the woman shrank back, but I shook my head gently. “It’s all right. I mean you no harm. Like I said, I’m with the Gover. I’m going to send the two of you back to the ordinary world now.”

  “Ordinary world?” the old woman asked, and I nodded. “When you wake up, stay put. If there are any injured…” I rattled off a phone number for them to call. It took a few tries for her to remember it, so panicked she was, but in the end she memorised it. “All right then, this might sting a little…” Their bodies tained a shimmering energy that was funing simirly to a fake chakra work, keeping them here in the Boundary. Using Chirurgery I delicately removed it, as swiftly as I could without causing them noticeable harm, although they would likely be in some disfort for a while. Moments ter the two of them vanished, and I sighed bitterly.

  What the hell are these idiots thinking? Part of the pn? I quickly headed in the dire that the two had fled from, and soon wished I hadn’t. The ground was soaked with silver and red blood, slowly turning to mist and vanishing, and shapeless, indistinct corpses were lying in the puddles, slowly fading away. Some of them are so small…

  g my fist, I remembered the corpses of my trainees, and a surge of anger welled up i’s happening again. Though this time, there truly was nothing I could have doo prevent it, but…

  Seeing the Cultivators hunting for any survivors, bone bdes at the waists of some, I growled, before leaping forwards, furious. A Cultivator spotted me, but before he could raise a cry I had already struck him down. Blood scattered from Cutting Twilight, and behind me purple smoke was rising from the corpse. Shit. I’m such a soft touch… fmes burst into being, and Foehn ed the corpse, slime and all, Foehn being noticeably easier to wield and more potent now. Seeing the fmes, other Cultivators responded, and some even pulled their bone swords. Those I dealt with mercilessly, my speed outmatg them, leaving them looking as if they were wading through treacle, uo respond to my fatal blows. Those that engaged me without wielding their swords, I ended mercifully, ripping out and burning the slime and bone bdes to ashes.

  A few of the Cultivators who I had purged of the slime started rising to their feet, but I expected that, and fme bzed, redug their cursed bodies to ash. When I was done, I looked around dully at the massacred Sect. I really hope none of them were Daiyu’s rades… no, even if they were, I ’t five this…

  “Aren’t… you going to kill me too?” a quiet voice said, and surprised, I realised I had missed someohere was a young woman kneeling there, her dark hair pulled into a tight bun, a bone bde beside her. Though the bde is . I don’t think it’s beehere’s a lot of old blood on her clothes though. Her front was soaked with gore, and purple smoke was rising faintly from her, her face set in an expression of pain.

  “And you are?” I asked, my hands tight on Cutting Twilight. She must have noticed that, as her pained expression became calmer.

  “I am Nie Ling, and this atrocity is my doing.” She admitted. “I…” she vomited, mostly empty pink-tinged bile, before rubbing at her chapped lips, her pale skin noer white. “I…” she began again. “I have the blessings of the Duke of Dreams. Though all my dreams, they are merely nightmares now.” She coughed. “This… this is what I was tasked to do. I never wahis, but…”

  Stepping closer, she flinched, before rexing. “What do you mean?” I asked, scious time was short.

  “I pulled these poor people into this world of dreams. Then… then they were murdered.” Her expression twisted.

  “By you?” I asked, and she shook her head.

  “I couldn’t do it. I know the others wao. They want revenge on the Ministry and on a. I… I just wao survive.” Her waxy cheeks glittered with a scattering of tears. “I didn’t want to die. I was selfish. And that led to… a worse fate. Ah, I feel it eating away at me. The creature knows my role here is done. Won’t… won’t you kill me?” she looked at me hopefully. “I sidered it, but I was too scared to do the deed myself, and I ’t use that…” she looked down at the bone bde. Suddenly she squealed, as Foehed, fmes ing the bde, redug the squirming thing to ashes.

  “… so how many died here?” I asked, and she looked down.

  “Hundreds, certainly. Some fled, but this pce is dangerous. Few will eil the dream wears off. Not sthened by the poisonous breath of it.”

  I focused my senses, usiher to enhahem, allowio see great distances in all dires. My brain ached fiercely, eyes throbbing, but moments ter I let out a bitter sigh. “Yes, I… I don’t see anyone. Just dissolving corpses. Hundred and hundreds. Are you satisfied then, Nie Ling?”

  “Of course I am not!” she decred. “But what would you have done?” she accused me. “It isn’t merely death that scares me… though I’m afraid of dying.” She admitted. “But what waits for us is worse thah. At best, total oblivion, no hope of rebirth or any afterlife…” her lips quirked. “The afterlife. I never believed in such a thing up until I was visited by a messenger from Zhōu Gōng in my dreams…” she wiped at her face. “… and if not that, then torture as its food.”

  “I don’t know. But I know I’d never have dohis!” I said, my Eye shining, seeing her Divine Favour and the mess of slime surrounding it. I see, it’s rgely untouched, looks like the dev has only just started.

  “I saw what you did.” She said, a trace of hope in her eyes. “I… could you please remove the beast from me before you kill me?” she y down in front of me, grinding her head into my feet. “It is shameful to ask, my hands are so soaked with i blood. I never cared about revenge, not like many of the others. I just wao go far, far away, live in peace. But now… I shall settle for pea death. Just… it may be selfish, but you allowed some of the others to be free ih, I saw.”

  My hand twitched on the hilt of Cutting Twilight. Yes, you may not have killed them with your own hands, but you’ve killed heless. Even those who fled successfully will likely die, sin by the dwellers of Kyoto, never uanding where the dangers y… seeing that, she sighed. “I expected it was too much to ask. Well, at least… make it quick. Being ed is frighteningly painful. I pray you never have to face it.”

  “So you met the golden-eyed creature then?” I asked, and she looked startled.

  “You… you know of it?”

  “I do. Let me ask you this. I want three things. Your Divine Favour. Information. And for you to face Japanese justice for what you’ve done. I ’t see any oute but death for you, being ho. But if you face it, at least you’ll die with some pride and dignity.”

  “My Divine Favour? The gift? You take it?” she asked.

  “I . Now choose quickly, I have others to pursue.”

  “I tell you of the others, some of them at least.” She said. “But if I am to survive, you will have th!” she screamed as I wrenched out the slime polluting her Astral body. I was not gehough I made sure to be delicate around her Divine Favour. I don’t want to take it now, I’d just end up breaking it down. If we transpnt it ter…

  She dry-heaved and sobbed from the pain once more, as fmes scattered, burning slime reduced to ash. “Now, I know you are hidden underground. We’ll find your bodies soon, but…” she nodded as I asked her various things. “… oh, and don’t even think of running.” I assured her. “Or when I find you, and I will, you’ll wish I left the slime in you…”

  She nodded. “I will do as you have asked. I am so tired… so tired.” She was barely able to raise her head. “I… do you think I ever be fiven for this?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. I’m no saint myself, I ’t judge. But…”

  “But?”

  “In the end, you have a ce to give something back. If you try to make amends yourself, then perhaps the Gods will uand.” I finished, and she sighed.

  “I see. So uific. Well, I pray for your victory, and… beware the one who calls himself the Judge of Death. He is dangerous.” She shuddered, remembering his threats to her. “And should… you e across Luo Jiahao… please remember, he is not an evil man, just… just a desperate, grieving one.”

  With that she vanished, returning to the Material, to make tact with the JSDF, guiding them to the hiding spot. “Not an evil man, huh?” I looked around, his sin Cultivators mingled in with the dead, the man himself apparently having moved on to the stage of the pn. “No, this looks plenty evil enough for me…” my gaze strayed North, to where the remaining Cultivators and apparently more didates had gone. “… well, it doesn’t matter. I have to finish this…”

  ShipTeaser