The Jade Shadows Must Die [Cultivation LitRPG]

The walk back was pure misery. The sunberry had well and truly worn off by then, leaving him to feel the full effects of the battle. By the time Rix got back to his cell, the throb in his leg was basically all consuming. That, layered on top of the burning ache in his mana meridians from the tattoo was a rough combination.

He collapsed onto his bed and scarfed down another sunberry, along with some jarrowstar root which Wing had kindly given him free of charge. "An apology," she'd said. The combination brought some small modicum of relief.

Wing and Huan had left him to go and attend to gang matters once he was through the portal. That left Luna to escort him the rest of the way.

"So, you finally opened it." Luna kept her voice quiet, but excitement was evident in her eyes.

Rix glanced around by reflex. He didn't like talking about cultivation within prison walls, but he understood her impatience. It was the first major breakthrough in cultivation power either of them had experienced. As long as they talked vaguely, he didn't think it would be a problem. Assuming he could stay conscious.

"In the nick of time," he replied. "I was about ten seconds from eating Han's axe when it happened."

"Is that the secret then?" she asked. "You just need someone about to cave your head in? I'd have offered that for free."

"I'm not entirely sure, honestly. I've been in danger a bunch of times over the last few weeks, and it never made a difference." He furrowed his brow, playing back the events of the fight in his head. "What was interesting was that when it finally opened today, I was actually fighting unarmed."

Luna blinked several times. "You're joking."

"Nope. Han literally broke my staff. I didn't have a choice."

Luna whistled, low and impressed. "Ancestor's guts, Rix. That's...actually kind of insane. Okay, now I'm properly annoyed."

Rix raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Luna's usual teasing glint returned. "Because! I leave you alone for a few hours, and you immediately take the opportunity to beat our shared enemy to death with your bare fists without me."

"To be fair, I did call my staff back out at the end. Also, he was my enemy first. I'm pretty sure you were just basking in my hate shadow."

"Irrelevant," she replied, managing to keep her voice almost completely earnest. "It's a betrayal of the highest order and I'll simply never forgive you."

"Maybe you should have been a better bodyguard then."

Luna's expression turned to shock. "I hadn't even thought of that! My professional reputation will never recover from this."

"Hopefully our friend will have answers about why it happened today," Rix said, trying to get the conversation back on track.

"Hopefully," Luna replied. She regarded him for several seconds. "I'm guessing by the fact that you were literally able to smash Han onto his own bleeding spike that it made a pretty big difference."

There was a hunger in her voice that Rix understood all too well.

He hadn't really had time to sit back and assess how strong the effect of the Mountain Gate was. It had clearly made a significant difference, but it was hard to judge how much. His victory over Han had been slim, and there were many other contributing factors. Both the tattoo and the way Han mishandled Rix's sudden power spike towards the end of the fight played a factor. If he and Han faced off fresh now in a one-on-one duel without the tattoo, Rix didn't know if he'd win the majority of the time. But after another gate or two? It might be a different story.

He grinned. "You'll get to see soon enough when we train next. I'm not sure I'm even going to need my weapon anymore."

Luna scoffed. "Good luck with that."

Her face grew more serious, and she toyed with her hair for a few seconds. "How did it feel?" she asked eventually. "You know, to finally get him?"

Rix took a moment to answer. "Honestly? Quiet."

Luna frowned. "Quiet?"

"Yeah," Rix said, gazing down at his hands. "There's been this…noise in the back of my head for ten years. A constant drone. After he fell, it just…stopped. At least for now." He looked up, his eyes intense. "People always say revenge feels empty. But they're wrong. It was everything I was hoping. More, even."

Luna gave a slow, understanding nod. "Sometimes the only way to fix a bad noise is to break the thing that's making it."

"It'll be back," Rix replied. "The ledger isn't even close to square. But for a moment, I can have a little peace."

***

Rix's recovery was slow. Despite the depth of his axe wound, it was actually the aftermath of the tattoo that took longer to heal. With the help of an array of healing herbs, his body began stitching itself back together in just a few days, but his meridians took more than a week to begin feeling normal again. According to Huan, the next time he used one would be worse.

The healing process was uncomfortable in more ways than just the physical. He'd dealt with Han, but that just meant the threat of Xu Sho's retribution now hung heavy around his neck. It was a tense few days.

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While the Shadow Runners had helped Rix back to the prison, Wing had organised a few members to stash the corpses, and it seemed to have worked. Nobody realised Han was missing until the portals were closed for the night.

As expected, there was an investigation. Wing, as well as other senior members from both gangs were pulled in to be interrogated. From what Rix heard, the Warden was again involved. But nothing significant came of it. With no evidence, the Shadow Runners simply denied all involvement. And what could the Iron Hand say? To reveal what had happened would be to admit they'd broken the moratorium, which would only lead to punishment. So, they, too, kept their mouths shut. As the days past with no further word, Rix began to think perhaps he'd gotten away with it.

Then one morning, Scarface came to visit him in his cell.

Seeing the man appear in his doorway was a shock. It was rare for anyone other than Rix to enter his space.

The man whistled as he looked at Rix. "I'd say 'you've seen better days', but knowing where you come from, I'm not sure that's true, dreg."

Rix stopped cycling the Breath Bridge. Even though he'd been advised to rest, he couldn't stomach the idea of doing nothing. The exercise was really the only sort of training he could do that didn't involve either his body or his mana meridians.

"Met a particularly nasty fade, sir," he said, leaning on the story he'd been telling everyone else.

The man raised an eyebrow, though the gesture was almost mocking. "A nasty fade, you say? Well, that's too bad."

"All part of being a diver, sir. I should be okay in a few days."

"Well, that warms my heart. We're losing too many of you cattle lately. Far too many. And in such strange circumstances. It truly is a puzzle."

Rix hesitated. The sarcasm was almost dripping from the man's voice, but that could mean any number of things.

"You said it yourself when I arrived, sir — our realm is particularly dangerous. I believe the Steward referred to us as 'grist for the mill'?"

"So he did." The man shot him a cruel grin and spread his hands. "And yet look how you've flourished."

Scarface strode into the room and made a show of inspecting it. "I'll tell you who recently stopped flourishing," he said, almost idly. "Someone I believe you know. A prisoner by the name of Xu Han."

Rix's heart leapt.

"Yes, I heard he died while diving the other day, sir," he said carefully.

"A shame to lose such an upstanding member of your little community here. Though for you it must have been a relief. I believe the two of you had something of an antagonistic relationship?"

Rix inclined his head. It didn't really make sense to deny it. The friction between Han and Rix had been on display at various times around the prison, even if the full scope of it may not have been clear. "He seemed to take issue with me, sir."

"What issue?"

"That I existed."

A smile spread across the guard's face. "Well now, that's a sentiment I can understand."

"Have I done something wrong, sir?" Rix asked. If the man had some accusation to level, there was nothing Rix could do to stop it.

Scarface threw up a look of mock surprise. "You? Well, I should hope not, model prisoner such as you are. No, I was just musing how strange it is that you seemed to turn up badly injured the same day your little nemesis disappeared."

Rix met his eyes. "Surely you're not suggesting that a dreg like myself was capable of killing the strongest Whisper in the farm?"

Scarface stared back, appraising Rix. Eventually, he laughed. "Now that would be ludicrous, wouldn't it? Still, you have somewhat defied expectations. You've survived all these months. You've won a few matches in the arena. I hear you might even soon attempt to actually tier up so you can join the older children in the big school."

Rix shrugged. "We'll see."

Scarface nodded slowly, his smile never quite reaching his eyes. He took a step closer, invading Rix's personal space, and clapped a heavy hand on his shoulder. "It's a dangerous world in here, dreg," he said, his voice dropping to a low, conspiratorial murmur. "Even more dangerous when powerful people lose things they value."

Rix went very still.

Scarface leaned in, his grin turning predatory. "But you know what's more dangerous than a powerful man's anger?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Boredom. This place can get so boring. Even Han got dull after a while." He gave Rix's shoulder a squeeze. "But you, on the other hand...you're a story I haven't read before."

He stepped back, his usual mocking tone returning. "Just try not to get killed before the final act. I hate it when the show ends early."

With that, the man departed, leaving Rix even more uncertain of his situation than before.

***

It was seven days before Rix felt well enough to re-enter the Fractured Realm. Luna had dived a few times during his recovery, so Breaker knew the broad strokes of what had happened, but Rix hadn't yet been able to discuss it himself.

"Congratulations, Zao Rixian," the man said, when they found him in their usual spot. "I knew your dedication would pay off."

He seemed in genuinely high spirits, and Rix found the mood contagious.

"Thanks," he said. "Wish it'd happened a little earlier, but I got there when I needed to."

"Sometimes need is the weight that tips the balance. Kai Luna told me a little about the circumstances, but I'd like to hear it from you."

And so, Rix explained the battle once more. Like any high intensity situation, his memories of the fight were strange; somehow too fast yet too slow at the same time, and hyper real, as though they'd happened to somebody else. Still, he managed to relay the core of it, with Breaker asking the occasional probing question.

"Fascinating," Breaker said, when he was done. "It sounds like a true triumph against adversity."

Rix shrugged. "The other option was to let them kill me, and that didn't appeal much."

"You say the breakthrough came when you were fighting unarmed?"

Rix nodded. "That was when the cycling technique seemed to change."

Breaker gave a heavy nod. "I've been considering this since Kai Luna told me your story. I think, Zao Rixian, the fault here does lie with me. The majority of students I know who opened their Mountain Gate did so while wielding a weapon. So, when you wanted to do the same, it never occurred to me to question it. But I failed to account for one thing: your System."

Rix took several seconds to process this, then his eyes widened fractionally. "You think my style was getting in the way somehow?"

"That's what I've surmised. You told me that, when fighting, your System is constantly feeding your mind movements. At the time, I didn't think anything further of it because you described the process as somewhat automatic, but the goal of the cycling technique is to maintain a true flow state. It stands to reason that having something constantly encroaching on your mental space, even in a subtle way, would inhibit that outcome."

Rix let out a long breath. "That makes a certain kind of sense."

"Yet another reason to shun this inferior power," Breaker said, his expression turning sour. "How are you to grow stronger if you are not even allowed control of your own mind?"

"Not all of us are mental weaklings," chimed in Luna, who had been sitting quietly listening to the exchange. "Some of us swing our swords all on our own."

"You took a month to think of a bridge," Rix countered.

Luna's jaw worked for several seconds, but she couldn't muster a reply.

Breaker seemed vaguely amused by the exchange. "Kai Luna's more…traditional approach to combat probably means she'll face less resistance. But now that we know, none of us will make the same mistake again."

"Will this impact any of the other gates?" asked Rix. "You said the exercises to open them were similar in some ways."

"It shouldn't. While some other gates can be opened with weapon in hand, they don't require it. I will ensure we chart the correct path forward from now on."

Rix nodded. "I want to get started on the next gate soon, but first we have another priority. With my gate open, I'm as ready as I'm going to get."

He looked to Luna, who nodded. "We need to kill a Spark-tier fade each," she said.