Jade Dragon Beauty

The blinding light went away and they were standing in the middle of a field. At least, that was their first impression of the area, but the green of the soil that the moonlight revealed wasn't that of moss or grass or anything else that would be a normal part of a forest.

"Where are we?" the Red skinned man bellowed, grabbing Shen by the arm and spinning her towards them. "Where did your teleportation array take us, girl?"

"I...I don't know." she stammered. "it was random so that we couldn't be tracked."

The demon raised his arm like he was going to hit her. "You dare to make excuses when talking with the great General?"

"The Great Wasteland." said Lu. The General thought at first the boy was mocking him by repeating his words with a slight modification, then realized that he was answering the question. "It is the only place I know of that is this desolate. The green glow is from Corpse Fungus. It is one of the few living things that grow here. We should all cover our noses and mouths and periodically use a technique to detoxify our bodies. If we don't, their spores will build up in our lungs and slowly kill us."

The Demon released Shen, and drew his sword. "In that case, I only have one thing to say. Follow me as my servants, and I will let you live. Deny me, and you will die."

Shen thought the situation over. If by 'servant' he meant 'slave', and used the same type of contract that Shen had placed on him as a puppy, they wouldn't be free of it until they were stronger than he was when the contract was formed, as that is the earliest they could hope to break it with their cultivation. It was also the earliest they could easily kill him and end the contract that way, though the contract would no doubt prevent them from harming him. "You mean as your slaves." Shen said.

"Is that not preferable to death? Even together, you six would need to be at the peak of Foundation, and possess cores, to even stand a chance against me. Which leaves you with three choices. First, you can be my slave, and I will protect you as long as you serve me loyally. Second, you can attack me, which will inevitably end in your death. Or third, you can run away. I won't stop you, but the denizens of the Wasteland most certainly will. You will need my help to escape this place, and slavery is the only thing that will make me willing to aid you."

"Denizens?" ask Ponma. "Are there people here?"

Lu shook his head. "Not the living kind. The only thing that can survive here are the undead and the few things like the Corpse Mushrooms that feed on Death chi."

Mae hadn't looked well sinse they arrived, but she was quickly getting worse. She suddenly gripped her chest, where her dantian was, and started gasping for breath like she was drowning. "What is this feeling?" she asked. To the others there was a sickly cold in the air, but due to Mae's cultivation path she was more sensitive to the situation.

"Ing chi." said Lu. "Stagnant Yin chi. You can feel it more than us because you cultivate it."

"But, yin is supposed to be nurturing." she said. "How is this nurturing?"

The noise seemed to have drawn a crowd and several things in the shape of men or beasts walked towards them. As the dead couldn't heal, the damage to them slowed them to at most half their normal pace. "What can be more nurturing than that which all living beings must one day return to, the sweet embrace of the grave?" said the General. "But you haven't answered my question. Do you or do you not accept the contract to be my slave?"

"You can modify such contracts." said Lu. "Make it last a year, or until we reach a demon city, and I won't hesitate to serve you."

"No deal." said the General, looking at the surrounding enemies while devising a plan. "You need me far more than I need you. Take the offer or not, I'm not negotiating."

There was a tense silence as everyone realized how hopeless their situation was. At their current level, they could likely take on a few of these dead. If they came slowly enough they might be able to face them one at a time for several hours. But their chi was limited, and their bodies could only function for so long. In this environment the dead had an almost unlimited supply of chi to use to enhance themselves, and their bodies would keep going until their muscles were so torn that they couldn't move any more. Even then they would continue in a crude mockery of life, even if it was more like a coma. The chi would slowly replace the damaged portion so that they could continue functioning, like how a high level healing spell could give one an illusory body part which was as solid as a barrier and could move things similar to telekinesis.

The people from the sect simply weren't strong enough to survive here. They would need the strength of a Late Nascent Soul. As the dead enemies almost reached them, Danka spoke up. "Very well, Master. I was going to become a Mercenary anyway. Fighting for a Master instead of an employer isn't that big of a change."

"As will I," said Lu. "It is the only way we can survive, and we always have the possibility of being freed, even if only by outliving you."

The General smiled. "The practice of freeing all slaves when the master dies is an ancient one, though these days it is more popular to avoid the tradition by transferring ownership when one nears death. What makes you think that I will honor it?"

"You first swore fealty to the former demon lord Severance Prince, and only transferred your loyalty to his son 57 years ago when he killed his father to take over."

The General dashed forward and stabbed a Dead that got close too close to Lu. It was impaled on his sword, so he flicked the blade and flung the Dead into another. "I would not say such things where others can hear. I cannot shield you from charges of disloyalty."

"Yes, Master." he said. "I merely meant that you are a traditionalist, like the former Demon Lord."

The General nodded. "And the rest of you?"

Mae and Ponma looked at each other, then held each other's hand and nodded. "If it is the only way we can survive, then I have no choice." Mae said, and Ponma agreed.

The bulk of the undead got close enough to start attacking and the General ran out and intercepted several undead that neared the others, killing them in one stroke. The ones that neared Shen, however, were left alone, and Shen was forced to use the Flash Step sword in her belt and the Dragon Sword to kill them herself. While the others had a much easier time defending themselves thanks to the General's aid, breaking the hoards up so that they weren't overwhelmed, Shen was quickly getting worn out from the unending wave. A dozen times already Shen had thought she had killed one, only for it to stand up and attack again without an arm, or crawl at her without legs, dragging itself across the ground in her direction.

Several minutes passed as she fought them off, but after an hour her arms felt like they were going to fall off. "Just answer my questions and this can all end." the General said. Her friends seemed far better off than she was, as they had someone with thousands of times the chi supporting them.

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Eventually her arms couldn't keep up with the onslaught and a reptile looking creature managed to get by her block, her sword moving just a little too slow, and its claws left a large gash across her stomach. She could tell at once that the wound was infected, as something ate at her from the edges of the wound, first causing it to feel like it was on fire, but not the good kind Shen could use to cultivate. Then the wound went numb, and Shen knew that she needed to be treated immediately if she was going to live.

She swung her sword back towards the creature's neck and its head came off, a thick black goo coming out instead of blood. "Fine." she said. "Save my life and I will consider it a life debt." It was, after all, the only way she would live.

Shen felt her spine start to go numb and soon her legs went numb as well, causing her to collapse on the ground. The General nodded and raised his hand in the air, and a red dome formed over them, blocking more undead from entering. The few that were already inside, including the one approaching Shen, soon found themselves cut into pieces.

"Only Life and pure Yang energy can permanently drive out the Ing that animates them, but if they are in enough pieces they can't continue fighting." he said, explaining why those he killed stayed down. "Mae, heal her as best you can. It is an Immortal level effect, so I doubt you can eliminate it, but do your best."

As Mae ran over to try and save the dying Shen, the General went to the center of the barrier and sat down, starting to meditate. Danka was about to ask what was happening, then a massive formation expanded out from him, covering the ground in its glowing form. "Mass Enslavement." he said, and a wave of neutral chi washed over everyone. Shoom felt the tattoo which had been marked out suddenly activate and repair itself, and suddenly he felt that he had a new master. To the others, however, they simply knew that they must not harm and always obey the General, or bad things would happen to them.

After that he went over to Shen. "How is she?" he asked Mae.

"Not good. I gave her healing pills, and they seemed to weaken the sickness, but not by much. I'm using the Many Rivers technique to repair the damage, but it's only delaying things." For some reason she felt like it would be wrong to lie to the General or hide things from him.

"The pills probably contained some Life chi, but the healing technique doesn't, so it can't weaken the necrosis bacteria the way the pills did." He knelt down beside her. "I'm not sure how well this will work, but I did learn to make Life chi in training, as it can work as a better form of the Release ability." His hand glowed with a golden light and he touched the wound. For a few seconds nothing seemed to happen, then the skin turned from black or gray to white and red, only the dead skin remaining black. Shen woke up with a scream as all of the pain caused by the disease flooded into her, and Mae quickly cast a sleep technique on her so that she could sew the wound shut, the blood now flowing much more easily. Due to the rotting disease the wound was far worse than it should have been and Mae was forced to cut away a bit of dead tissue before repairing the missing tissue with the Many Rivers technique and what was left of her neutral chi, not having learned any of the Wood based healing techniques within her new path.

Eventually she had Shen stitched up and healed as well as she could without chi. She pulled out the bag of stones Shen had given her and absorbed a few more. "Well, Master, she's going to live." She started coughing, but was surprised at how natural the title sounded. "Shen's not fully healed yet, but in a few hours my Chi should be restored enough to finish the healing." Mae stood and bowed at the man before coughing again. "Thank you for saving my friend's life."

"She was my servant the same way you are." he responded, as though it should be obvious. "I promised to protect your lives, and that's what I'm going to do. Besides, how stupid would it be to lose such a valuable asset by being lazy?" He chuckled. "As for that cough, the Corpse mushrooms are probably starting to grow in your lungs. You might want to give everyone a pill for that."

Mae nodded, then pulled out two bottles, giving one each to the others and forcing Shen to swallow two pills as well. "Anti toxin pill to purge the toxins it left in your blood and anti fungus pill to kill the fungus."

The General nodded, then spoke. "I won't need them. The rest of you can make camp with whatever supplies you have. I will be keeping the barrier up until sunrise. The Pure Yang of the sun should drive the weaker ones underground during the daytime and weaken the stronger ones. We will be traveling during the daytime. We will go West. If I remember correctly, we should be in the middle of the Desert region, east of the Plains region where my estate is. Once we reach it, we will collect another army and head north to rejoin my troops in the Mountain region." With that he sat down, closed his eyes, and started to meditate.

Mae set up a tent from her bag and put Shen inside of it, then joined the boys in moving corpses to the edge of the barrier so that they wouldn't make the camp stink any more than it already did. Some of the pieces still moved when she touched them, but she was able to force them to release her whenever a severed limb grabbed her. After two hours they had gathered everything they could. Two of the undead even had cores, which Danka suspected meant that they were once soldiers of the Demon army. He stored them in the bag on his waist. The master didn't seem interested in them, so he didn't bother trying to hand them over. None of the gear the Dead had on them were worth salvaging.

Once they were done Ponma conjured some water so they could rinse off, though it was harder to do than normal, and they went to bed. Mae cast another round of healing on Shen before doing so, then meditated to refill her chi from the stagnant chi around her. At first it felt wrong, like milk that had spoiled, but soon she found a way to cycle a bit of her chi in the air around her, causing it to become something close to proper Yin chi again before drawing it in. Of course, Yin and Yang were never fully separated, the mixture only favoring one of the other, so what she drew in also contained around 25% Yang chi, no doubt from the sun, as there was little else to provide it out here in the wasteland. This made it far purer than anything her body produced, but due to how close it was to Death, it would be dangerous to cultivate with it. If she did so too much, she risked becoming a greater undead, still possessing her mind and cultivation, but no longer being alive. Her cultivation book mentioned that some demonic cultivators took this route to try and gain immortality, but that if one made a mistake while doing so it would simply kill them rather than make them undead.

Once she was done she cycled a bit of her chi within herself, growing significantly towards the peak of Gathering, as her meridians got used to the new mixture. The growth was painful, though, and she knew that doing that too much would inflict something close to what had afflicted Shen on her, so she had to limit how much she did so. She only got a few hours of sleep, but it was more than enough.

When she woke up, the sky was just starting to lighten up. She got up to cook something for the group and saw the dead rapidly digging holes outside the barrier. Only a few of them stayed out of the ground, and those hid behind rocks and hills that would block the light of sunrises, the purest source of Yang.

Just as the sun started to reach over the horizon the last of the dead threw sand over themselves and were completely blocked from the sun's rays. The General opened his eyes and stood up. "Ok, eat quickly. We need to get moving if we are to make good progress." he said, then pulled some kind of rations from his ring before eating them.

Mae woke Shen up and gave her two more pills. While Shen felt tired, she was able to change her own clothes and take the tent down for Mae. Mae gave the boys pills and a few minutes after that, before she could even eat properly, the General stood up. "Ok, let's go. That's enough time to eat." He lifted into the air, then looked at the others. "You do have some way to fly, right?"

"Shen gave us flying swords at one point." Mae said.

Shoom, on the other hand, shook his head. "I never learned, and a sword is too small for me anyway."

The General sighed. "I didn't think of the fact that we had a spirit beast with us." He landed and started to think.

"Too bad we don't have that flying boat." Shen said. "All of us could have fit in it." The General nodded.

"Any chance of making one?" asked Danka. "Or at least something similar, as there don't appear to be any boats around here."

Shen shrugged. "Maybe." She walked over to a rocky outcropping and, after slicing up the Dead that had hid from the sun there into a dozen pieces, grabbed a flat piece of slate. Danka saw what she was doing and went to help her and between the two of them they managed to wiggle it out of where it was.

She wiped the top of and started drawing out the Earth flying sword formation. "If you don't mind waiting, master, I can make a crude flying platform for Shoom to use." The General nodded and Shen finished drawing the symbol then, once she was finished checking it for errors, carved it into the rock. The others took the opportunity to finish eating. When she was done with the crude relic she called Shoom over and instructed him on how to use the platform. Soon Shen was laying down on the rock that was only slightly larger than him, and floating above the ground. Once he got a bit more practice, the General ordered them to follow, then started flying West.

The five of them followed and continued like that for several hours. As there was nothing to do while flying, Shen flew over to Mae. "Hey, I just wanted to thank you for saving my life." Shen said. "It couldn't have been easy."

"It was mostly Master that saved you." Mae corrected. "He had a way to make Life chi, though it wasn't the purest. He just used a hundred times as much as the amount of Death chi inside you and destroyed it."

"Yeah, Master." Shen said, thinking about that. While her brain was telling her that she was supposed to call him that unless he gave her permission to do otherwise, something in the back of her mind told her that was wrong. She shouldn't be a slave. No one should. No one should have to serve anyone unless they agreed to do so. And while she had agreed to do so, was a Life Debt really proper grounds for becoming a slave? Part of her, the largest part by far, said yes, but a tiny part in the back of her brain, like the part that told her to fear anything with more than four legs, told her no. "Hey Mae." she said, changing the subject, "those pills you gave us. What were they?"

"Oh, those. They were anti-fungal and anti-toxin pills. I only brought twenty of each, though. I wasn't expecting to need all of us to use them. Six people taking them means we can only take them once more, with two lucky people getting a fourth dose, though 'lucky' will probably mean 'affected the most', so maybe it isn't a good thing. I'm just glad Master doesn't need a dose too, or we wouldn't all get a third."

"How do you think he does it? Do you think it's just a Nascent Soul thing, or does he have a technique?"

"Probably a technique. My book has some Wood elemental ones for both of those effects. I just haven't learned them yet."

"Do you think we could learn them together?" asked Shen.

"You want to learn a Wood technique? Wouldn't that clash with your Fire cultivation?"

Shen shook her head. "I mostly just need to learn it well enough that I can make a relic that uses it on us. That way we won't need to use the pills unless it gets really bad."

Mae nodded. "Sure. We can do that." For the next four hours they flew west, not even stopping to eat or use the bathroom. Mae said something about the second one and she was just told to either meditate to reabsorb it or go while flying. The General wanted to make the best time he could, and flying with them was already slowing him down, so he wasn't willing to stop for that. As it would be too embarrassing to try and relieve herself with the boys around and Shen couldn't block the view well enough, she started meditating instead of studying. At least pain management was strongly tied to Yin so she wouldn't hurt from holding it in.