NOVEL NEXT 45: Sworn Brothers
"Kill me."
These were Zhang Sha's first words upon waking. Fushuai had severed the connection between them. There was no more that he could do.
"I will not."
"You have seen what's inside of me." He sat up, flexing his hands, looking at them as if they were covered in blood. "I will never ascend. My Path will destroy me, or the heavens will. It would be better if I were killed by a brother while my mind is still clear."
The poison within him had been purified, replaced with pure YIn. However, Zhang Sha could not properly utilize qi outside of his elemental aspects. It would have to be filtered through his twisted root, and in doing so, the corruption would begin again.
"I will not."
"What if I force you?" He sprang to his feet, taking a martial stance. No weapon appeared in his hand, Fushuai had already confiscated the storage ring he'd been wearing on his toe. But even unarmed, he was a dangerous opponent nonetheless. His spiritual pressure descended, and it was met with no resistance. It passed through Fushuai as if he weren't there. Zhang Sha blinked. "What are you?"
"I have found my path," Fushuai rose. "And though I have spared your life, there are still no debts between us. However, you carry a much heavier debt, and you cannot die until it is repaid."
"What are you talking about?"
"Who was the girl? The one in your dreams?" There had been many victims and losses, so many that Fushuai could not have counted or ordered them all as they rushed through his mind while he was purifying the other cultivator's qi. But one death had stood out from the rest, the first guilt that led to all the rest.
A hollow face twisted in pain. Eyes darted to one side. "My sister. Zhang Mi Lu."
"What happened to her?"
"I failed her."
That was answer enough for the moment. Fushuai wanted to keep him grounded in the present.
"I will swear an oath to you as my sworn brother. The next time you ask me to kill you, I will. As long as you swear not to demand it of me until you have balanced the scales of your deeds."
"How is that even possible? I cannot bring her back to life."
"No, you cannot. You will have to decide for yourself what it means to balance your debt to Zhang Mi Lu. As for the rest. I will not consider your debts repaid until you save as many lives as you have taken. Until you have healed more wounds than you caused."
Zhang Sha laughed darkly. "That is a high mountain to climb."
"I'm sure it is. And we will climb that mountain together."
He shook his head. "Have you been overtaken by madness as well? Why should any of this matter to you? My karmic debt will be balanced when I am reborn as a worm, or else sent to suffer in the nine hells. It is not your burden, and neither am I."
Fushuai shrugged. "Do you give me your word, or not?"
"I will lose myself to the deviation long before I have balanced anything."
"That is why you will be at my side, to keep your qi pure. This is not a burden to me. You have knowledge that I need, and skills that I lack. All that you have done in the service of the demonic arts will serve you well as a surgeon and a physician."
"A physician to whom?"
"Anyone who needs it."
"Can't your Asura teach you such things?"
"He might know medicine, but he would not teach it to me. Mah Goshung is only my martial tutor."
"He's not your master?"
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"Give me your word in balance with mine, and I will tell you my true master's name."
Zhang Sha was silent for a time, a war was playing out behind those sunken eyes. At last, he nodded. "The risks you take, I expect we will both be dead before too long. Fine then. I will not ask you to give me my death until after the scales are balanced in my favor. So who is it, then? Who made you the hatchling monster that you are?"
"Xiao Sheng."
The other cultivator's legs went weak, and he dropped to the floor as if dazed. "The Living Blade." He barked a laugh. "No wonder. The tales say he has never taken a disciple. But I can see why he would choose you."
"Can you?" Fushuai was genuinely curious.
"Of course. You're not just talented. You're a cultivation genius."
"I am not a genius. It is the ones who have trained me over the last year that deserve all the credit. What little talent I have can only bloom because of them."
"A blind fool genius." Zhang Sha muttered. "What did you say your family name was? Gao? I have never heard of them."
"Our clan is well known in Ashen City."
"Never heard of that, either. Must have been the far side of the mountain from me." He gestured to his laboratory: the cauldron, table, and books. "If I'm to come with you, what about all this? You have my storage ring, don't you?"
Fushuai removed the ring from a pouch and tossed it. The other cultivator caught the treasure on reflex and stared, his brows down and his lips slightly open. "You're giving it back to me?"
"It was never mine. How many times do I have to say that there are no debts between us?"
Zhang Sha grunted, then rose. "At least one more." He slipped the ring on a finger, took a few steps, and one by one, caused every trace of himself that would have been left in that temple to disappear. "What will your master think of you bringing me back with you?"
"I don't know. He said that my time on this mountain would come to an end when I reached the peak of qi refinement. As I have done so, I do not know what the future holds. But when I admitted we hunted together, he told me that finding an ally was no different than picking up a stick or a rock and using it as a weapon, and I was welcome to do so if it helped me complete my task. So, he won't punish me for tying myself to you, I think."
"Hah. Then I will be a stone for you to carry. And where is your master? Did he send you to defeat me?"
"He didn't, and I have no idea."
***
The sky had cracked, and an island wrapped in white flame descended from it. For the briefest instant, Goshung had seen the heavens bared before darkness and veils moved to cover them again. He had laughed and laughed.
He awoke beneath stone. Crushed, but not broken. Ash had fused into glass around him, and veins of silver pulsed weakly in the blackened rock. Attempting to escape to open air only would have exposed him to heaven's eye, so he burrowed down instead. He dug through ancient stone, following a scent he knew well. His claws found faults in the rock, and he willed them to open, proceeding with pure animal stubbornness. The deeper he went, the stranger the world became. Breathless strata, long-forgotten tunnels, earth packed with the silence of ages.
The digging continued until demons began to appear. A tall antlered shapeshifter barred his way. It dragged a chain of its own ribs, each clinking like an instrument, and asked him his name. He answered by tearing out its throat. The taste was bitter, oil and maggots, but he swallowed it all. The next did not attack, following far enough behind him that it thought it was safe. A creature made of hands, dozens, maybe hundreds, all crawling across its own body, clapping and snapping its fingers. A few days on, he slowed, pretending to grow weak, allowing it to approach. He crushed it against the stone until it ceased to move.
It was soon after that when the tunnels opened into a chasm that stretched all the way down to the hells. Along its lip was a barrier of Darkstone Flame, purplish red and hotter than a forge. It was a fire that did not burn flesh. It burned essence. The very will to remain unchanged. He dragged himself to the center of it and lay still. Let it take what it wanted and scour him clean. Only then could he begin to heal.
He did not know how long he lay there before he heard the footsteps of one who did not belong. Rising from the flames, he shook himself like a dog stepping out of a stream. Scarlet drops fell from his fur and melted the stones around him. The clacking of his old rival's wooden sandals echoed in the emptiness.
"I was wondering where you got off to," Xiao Sheng said.
"My time in the Earthly Realm is at an end."
The paunchy old man took a quick glance around, found a stone he liked, and sat to massage his calves. "This body of mine. I almost regret begging for another extension. I could do with a rebirth."
The wolf's ears pricked forward. "They're letting you stay?"
"On a condition, yes. And I'll need your help to fulfill it."
"The heavens already made it clear I'm not welcome."
"That wasn't a rebuke. It seems that one of those fool children brought a Jade Court Obligation token with them and broke it as their last act." He glanced up, his eyebrow raising. "You have a way of bringing out the best in people."
Goshung growled. "I was doing my part for this charade. Anyone who comes looking for you or the boy dies by a hand not your own."
"And you've performed admirably. I could not be more grateful. If you are afraid to set foot in the mortal world again, that is something I can understand. You know, this reminds me of—"
"Don't start with me, Sheng." The Asura cut him off before the parable could begin. "You know I fear nothing and no one. But even if the heavens acted on an obligation, they still won't allow me to remain."
"They will if you're acting in their interests."
"How is training the whelp in their interest?"
"It isn't. But I picked up an obligation of my own in exchange for the extension. What do you think about helping me kill the Emperor of the Golden Empire?"
The wolf's jaws opened in a smile.