NOVEL NEXT 68: Deeper Treasures
The elder centipede had been a true spirit beast, possessed of a solid core. Its carapace held value as well, as did those of the lesser monsters. They had no bones to speak of, being primarily long tubes of pale meat encased in steel. But this still wasn't treasure; what could be harvested from their bodies was nothing worth dying for.
Fortunately, they had sustained only minor injuries. Lacerations were soon coated in resin and wrapped in bandages to speed recovery. The beast that had latched onto his leg had managed to inject him with venom, and he was busily filtering the toxin through his root, working to restore internal equilibrium.
Spattered acid left holes in Lin's robe and burn marks along Lao's arm. The latter was greeted with whinging complaints, the former, with worried relief. As they tended their wounds and collected the spoils, Bai Tu feasted, crunching metal as happily as meat.
"You are distracted," Zhang Sha said, catching Fushuai staring off into space.
He nodded. Though he had tried to put it from his mind, the vision his master had sent him lingered, hanging behind every word, every glance. The dragon had been too great, too vast to comprehend. There was nothing he could do, nothing anyone could do, to stop it. And though he was not yet ready to say it aloud, that included the heavens.
The meaning of the message had been plain. And yet, he could not reconcile it with his understanding of the world. He did not believe that his master would deceive him in a matter such as this. And he did not believe that the Jade Emperor could act in such a way as to bring about the end of all existence.
Both possibilities were impossible, and therefore they clashed.
The hollow-eyed cultivator watched him shrewdly.
"You didn't hit your head, and your sister wasn't badly wounded. That means it's whatever your master said that has you occupied. I think this was only a taste of what waits below. If we're going into danger, your mind needs to be sharper than that blunt stick you carry. His last words weren't words, were they? You saw something. I could almost see it, I could taste the dream. Whatever it was, to me it felt like…coming home."
"It's nothing." Fushuai shook his head. Perhaps a dream of the void would be something of a comfort to someone like Zhang Sha. "I think the world is ending."
"One emperor or another. I don't think much will change."
"No, not the Empire. The world. And not only the earthly realm. All three. I think all three will end."
His voice was barely above a whisper, but in the silence of that ancient vault, the words hung alone and unmistakable. Lao ceased his muttering, and Lin looked up from petting Bai Tu. Neither spoke.
"He showed me a dragon," Fushuai went on. "Though that form may just have been a way for me to understand. In truth, I don't know what it was, only that it carried death with it."
The irony was not lost on him: that so soon after he had chosen a path which set death as his enemy, he would be shown how great an opponent it truly was. "I don't know how far away the end is, or how quickly it can move, but I know that it is coming. And when it does, there will be nothing to stop it."
"If it is so great a threat," Lin said, "then it will have to break itself against the heavens. The Jade Emperor slew a celestial dragon before, did he not?"
"This was not celestial," Fushuai said, struggling to find words for something beyond all reckoning. "It was not something that could set foot in any of the three realms without destroying them."
Zhang Sha's eyes narrowed, thoughtful. "Is that what Xiao Sheng told you?"
"He didn't explain what it was. He said showing it to me was the best explanation he could give. I don't think he ended the conversation by choice. The heavens were constraining his actions."
"Hah." He fingered his skinning knife. "The heavens constrain everything. I'm not surprised a fresh immortal would be tightly watched."
"I can't claim to understand it yet. But you are right that I am preoccupied. All I know is what I felt when I saw it, and that feeling fills me with more certainty than any argument could bend."
"If it's that powerful, there's no point in thinking about it. What else did he tell you, aside from where we might find the manual?"
"Only to continue on as I have been. To learn. To grow. To advance."
"Then put it from your mind. What's the good of months of meditation if you can't even train yourself to forget a single cataclysmic dragon?"
Fushuai tried and failed to smile in response. "I'll try to put it aside for now. He may have more to show me, and we can discuss what it all means when we are out of here."
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The third level of the vault was unlike the first two.
This stair opened onto a broad, high chamber with a domed ceiling. The stone here was darker, veined like iron, and lined with inscriptions, most of which had not been so marred as to ruin their efficacy. Four high arches connected the dome to long halls. At the peak of each arch, a symbol was engraved into the rock: signs belonging to the noble clans that had once ruled in Emerald City.
"Private vaults," Zhang Sha said. "Perhaps these haven't been picked clean."
Each arch radiated a different aura: wood, fire, water, and earth. Between the two farthest departures was an opening no larger than a regular door. The shadows there were too thick to pierce, and even when Zhang Sha sent one of his blazing orbs to inspect the darkness within, it did not budge.
"I recognize that sign." Lao pointed to the nearest hall. "The Diamond Stag Clan. There are still a few of them left in the Steel Ribbon Sect, and they're always crying about how important and wealthy their family used to be. We should search that one first."
"My master suggested there would be nothing here worth taking that we were strong enough to win," Fushuai said. "Except for what he sent me to find."
"But that hall looks untouched. There's no damage to the stone or the array. What if we were the first ones to enter it?"
"Why don't you go ahead and step under the arch," Zhang Sha said, "and see what happens to you."
"No," Fushuai said quickly, when it seemed Lao was about to take his advice. "There've been countless cultivators who came here before us. If they could not win whatever hides behind that arch, neither can we."
"Then why come here at all?" Lao demanded. "Can't the same be said for whatever you're here to find?"
"For that, my master left me a key."
Lao crossed his arms and huffed but did not argue further, for the moment.
"There is no sword aura," Lin said. "No metal at all."
Zhang Sha produced his bow, nocked it, and spun with precision. The arrow flew, its path bending upward, and struck something soft crouching on the upper stairs they had left behind. The impact was followed by a shriek.
"Yaoguai," he said. "That might teach them not to follow us."
Fushuai stepped forward to inspect the umbral door.
There was a sense of Yin there, but it wasn't pure. It had a flavor he struggled to name, a cold not of ice, a dark not of shadow. It reminded him, uncomfortably, of what he had seen in the eyes of the dragon at the end of the world.
"What do you think of this, Sha?" he asked. "Is it a trap?"
"More lure than trap," he said. "This is raw aura, not a projection from an array."
"Void aura," Fushuai said, after a long moment of thought.
If Xie Gui had been in the city, developing his Path, then it stood to reason that something of his might have ended up in this vault. Since light could not banish the gloom before him, he instead reached inward and activated Moonstep.
Instantly, the path ahead became clear. A long, sloping tunnel unfolded, its smooth floor and bare walls made of stones so precisely fitted they needed no mortar, resembling the scales of a serpent.
"This path may be for me alone," he told the others.
"You want all the treasure for yourself?" Lao puffed up. "So you're going to leave us behind?"
"Whatever I find, I'll bring back this way. The manual was meant for me, but the rest will go to benefit us all."
"I'm not afraid of a few shadows," the young cultivator said.
"What do you think?" Fushuai looked again to the older cultivator.
"Splitting up in a place like this is rarely wise. My spiritual sense needs no light, so it's not as if I'll be truly blind."
Lin ducked her head. "I don't know if I'll be of any use to you down there, but I know I can't be of any use to you up here. If we find it's too dangerous, then we can turn back, but until then, I'd rather follow than be left behind."
Bai Tu yipped, either in agreement or out of boredom.
They entered the passage, Fushuai at the lead and Zhang Sha bringing up the rear, ensuring the more vulnerable were shielded. The darkness did not resist them, nor did it welcome. It simply was.
The tunnel went on and on, and just as the blackness prevented sight, it pressed against their other senses. There was no scent of stone or dust, no hint of moisture in the air. The sound of their footsteps did not echo, and soon muted entirely. Fushuai could see the others clearly, but Lao and Lin moved with one hand along the wall, occasionally calling out to reassure themselves that everyone was still together.
The passage extended for three full li before finally opening onto an octagonal chamber that dropped down a hundred paces or more. Around the rim of the pit wound a narrow stone stair.
The aura here was even thicker, but it was also broken.
Eight pillars of silver light cut through the darkness, lances stretching to the ceiling far above: pure sword aura. Whatever they protected was hidden deep below, shrouded by something even Fushuai's moon-blessed eyes could not fathom.
Suddenly, Lao rushed forward.
"It's all mine! It was made for me!"
Fushuai's hand snapped out and wrapped around his arm, halting his headlong charge in an instant.
"What are you doing?" he demanded, but the young cultivator didn't seem to hear him. His eyes were blank and empty, as if his lids had simply lifted while he slept.
"You dare?" Lao snarled, responding with a straight-fingered jab..
Fushuai twisted aside, following the motion, and pinned Lao against the wall with his staff.
"Control yourself."
Behind him, he heard Lin crying, and Bai Tu growling. He turned and saw that they were unharmed, at least physically.
Lin had dropped into a crouch, arms wrapped around herself, shivering as tears streamed down her face. The fox snapped at nothing, spinning and barking, then struck the stone floor with his jaws and rebounded with a sharp yelp.
Zhang Sha stood utterly still, staring into nothing. Ever so slowly, his hand crept to his belt to wrap around the hilt of his skinning knife.
Fushuai dragged Lao along the wall, moving closer to his sister. "Lin," he said, "can you hear me?"
There was no answer from any of his companions, aside from Lao's continued attempts to free himself. Then, Zhang Sha moved in a blur. He seized Bai Tu by the scruff and slammed him to the ground. In the same breath, the blade pressed against the fox's throat.
Fushuai lunged, carrying Lao with him, and landed a solid kick to the chest.
Zhang Sha slid back and crouched, knife at the ready.
Bai Tu, unable to tell friend from foe and knowing only that he had been attacked, lashed out. His teeth sank into Fushuai's wrist.
The bite filled him with more surprise than pain. Bai Tu was advancing, but he was not yet at a stage where his natural weapons posed an immediate threat to a foundation cultivator's body. Still, in seeking to dislodge the fox, Fushuai lost his grip on Lao, who broke away, sprinted to the edge of the hall, and raced down the stairs toward certain death.