The Jade Shadows Must Die [Cultivation LitRPG]

The rest of the dive went in a similar fashion. Breaker pushed Rix through attempt after attempt of the Torrential Cycle, and progress was agonizingly slow. By the end of their session, he could consistently get to the point where the technique began drawing in qi, but rarely could he sustain the flow for more than a few seconds. The goal was to drag the new qi into the loop as it entered his dantian, building an ever-growing wave of energy. But the mental effort to maintain control over that raging flood became too much the moment more was introduced. By the end of the session, Breaker's 'drowning' analogy felt very apt to Rix.

Though Breaker didn't snap at him again, there was a tension to his expression when they wrapped up that said he'd hoped Rix would do better.

"You must continue to work on this back home," he said. "It will be more difficult without the entropy field accelerating the flow of your qi, but any practice will be beneficial. We don't have time to waste."

Rix gave a weary nod. Though the process wasn't physical at all, it was nonetheless exhausting. Luna, too, looked worn down. After an hour of cycling, she'd grown bored and had returned to burning in her meridians.

Breaker cast his eyes over the two of them. "I know this is tiring, but I need more than a simple nod, Zao Rixian. My life hangs in the balance. I need you to confirm you understand the gravity of this undertaking."

Rix met his gaze. "I understand, Breaker. I'll continue my practice tonight."

The man nodded. "Good. It goes without saying, of course, that any other pursuits must be put on hold. No more weapons training. No more battles in that arena of yours. No more petty squabbles with your fellow inmates. We will do the absolute minimum in here to ensure you remain compliant, but that is all. For the next three months, the Torrential Cycle and your two gates will become your whole world."

Rix felt an objection forming on his tongue, but he held it back. There was little point in arguing. The man's tone brooked no argument.

Besides, the reality was that Breaker couldn't actually monitor anything that happened outside the realm. They'd already lied to him about the necessity of killing fades to meet their 'quota', and they'd gotten away with that. Rix had every intention of giving this his all, but he didn't see how the occasional training session with Master Zhen or a bout in the arena would impact that. Judging by how he felt now, he couldn't spend every waking moment on the Torrential Cycle. His mind would simply give in. A little variety would be a good thing.

"I will do everything I can," Rix said.

Breaker escorted them back to roughly where they'd first met, ensuring they didn't meet any fades too strong for them to handle, then they parted ways.

Rix and Luna walked in silence for several minutes until Rix eventually broke it. "Well, that could have gone worse."

"Could have gone better too," Luna replied. "I didn't particularly like how he treated either of us there, at least at first."

"I know." Rix let out a long breath. "Not exactly a surprise though. He's always been…prickly."

"Prickly? He's basically a cactus with a god complex." She chewed over her next words for several seconds. "Do you trust him?"

Rix hesitated. "To a point. I trust that he wants us to get stronger."

"Sure. But let's say you open your two gates and it's touch and go whether you're strong enough to help him. Do you trust his word that he won't make you try it anyway? How would you even know if you were ready?"

It wasn't like Rix hadn't had the same thoughts, and he didn't have a good response. "I mean, what's our alternative? It's not like we can keep coming here and just start ignoring him. There's no way that doesn't piss him off. Do you want to stop diving altogether?"

Luna grimaced. "Obviously not. I don't have a solution. I'm just saying that I don't like it."

"Well, you're not alone." It was a tricky spot. Technically, they didn't need to dive any more. Their only goal now was to get out of Spiritlock with their lives. They could hole up back in the prison, work on their escape plan, and hope Breaker didn't have any way of exacting revenge from afar. But that route was condemning the man based on mere suspicion, which didn't sit entirely right with Rix.

Beyond that, there was the issue of stagnation. To stop diving was to stop growing, and while he still had no idea how they were actually going to escape, he suspected they'd need every ounce of strength to do it.

And finally, there was the matter of Breaker's wealth of knowledge. Spiritlock was purpose-built to hold Martial Souls. Any escape plan that only leveraged their System-granted strength was almost certainly doomed to fail. Their cultivation, on the other hand, was a rogue element — the ace up their sleeve. They had Kokoryu to offer some advice, but Rix had the sense that Breaker knew far more than the Wellspring representative. To shun him now was to give up what could be a critical resource.

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There were no easy answers to this problem.

"We've got time," said Rix. "I think that for now, we keep training the way he wants. If things continue to feel off later, we can consider what to do."

Luna nodded. "I guess that makes sense."

"When you think about it, we actually have most of the control in the situation. He has to take us at our word about everything that happens outside the realm, including when exactly we're going to break out."

Luna's face took on an expression of mock horror. "So you're saying we could…lie to him? Rix, I'm shocked. Absolutely scandalized. I thought you were a man of honor."

Rix snickered. "I'm a man of many things. Honor is just further down the list than 'not getting killed by a cosmic entity'. The good news is that whatever happens, I think you'll be fine. Sounds like all the risk will be on my end."

Her mouth quirked up. "Thank the heavens then that you mean nothing to me and this is purely a relationship of convenience."

Despite the playful delivery, he couldn't miss the undercurrent of warmth behind those words. "Thank the heavens, indeed."

He felt an unexpected surge of emotion. It had been some time now since he'd acknowledged to himself that what they had was true friendship, but every so often he still found himself struck again by that fact. That there was someone who would genuinely put themselves at risk for his wellbeing, and for whom he would do the same.

When he'd visualised his quest as a child, it had been that of a lone wolf. A man beholden only to his mission. He never saw space in that for any kind of genuine relationships, and yet he'd managed to stumble into one, perhaps several, without really trying. He was still working through how he felt about that.

"I have a question," Rix said. "Say the unthinkable happens and everything goes to plan. Say I open my gates, you open one of yours, we help Breaker then manage to break out of Spiritlock…what will you do then?"

Luna took her time responding. "I've been asking myself the same thing. I spent most of my life knowing exactly what I was supposed to do. Members of the Falling Leaf only have one true path. And then—" she gestured to the tether around her neck, "—suddenly I didn't."

Rix's past was a source of immense pain, but one small silver lining was that it had given him an overwhelming sense of purpose. He couldn't imagine what it would feel like to have that ripped away. What would he want for himself right now if his family still lived?

"There's no way to return to the sect?" Rix asked carefully. This was a sore spot for Luna. Her family had basically disowned her.

She scoffed. "Anyone who saw me, my family included, would just hand me to the elders to be deposited right back here." She shook her head. "I'm not going back there until I'm strong enough that they can't make me do anything anymore." There was real steel in her voice when she said that.

"I don't think that will take you long at your current pace," Rix replied.

They were silent for a couple of beats.

"What about you?" she asked. "Is it 'assassination mission Xu Sho' once you're out of here?"

Rix nodded. "Theoretically. Kind of hard to plan how to kill the man when I'm too busy trying to run away from him though."

Luna let out a low laugh.

"To be honest, I haven't really been thinking about my list at all since Han," Rix continued. "I spent so long focused on him, and it seemed like such an impossible task, that I never really looked beyond him." He stared off into the middle distance as they walked. "I don't think I expected to actually get him, you know? I just felt like I owed it to them to try. Go out in a blaze of glory. And yet here I am. I did it. And what I earned myself is a series of ever more impossible mountains to climb."

Luna studied him for a moment. "My old mobility master, Elder Jin, used to say, 'A man who only looks at the peak will trip on the first stone at his feet.' It was his annoying way of telling us to focus on the process, not the end goal. He wasn't wrong, though."

Rix exhaled slow. "I know. You're right. I don't mean to sound like my resolve is flagging or anything. It's not. If anything, I'm more determined than when I walked in here. I know I can do this now. I guess I just have better perspective on how long my mission will take."

Some of the playfulness returned to her face. "Good. For a second there, I thought I was going to have to give you a hug or something. And I'm not sure my arms bend that way."

He laughed. "Sorry for the scare."

Luna cleared her throat. "That does raise an interesting point though. As we've established, my current to-do list basically just says 'get strong enough to prove everyone in my life wrong', so I suspect I'll be free to give more mountain climbing tips once we do get out, assuming you'll have me."

Rix furrowed his brow. "Luna—"

"I know what I'm suggesting," she interrupted, the levity dropping away. "I get it. It'll be dangerous, it's not my fight, blah blah blah. But honestly, that's what makes it fun! Also, in case you hadn't noticed, things just sort of happen around you. Old monsters finding you in the realm? Powerful parents of mysterious origins? Hidden groups scouting you from outside the prison? A blind beggar could see that the best way to get stronger is to stick to you like glue."

He snorted. "I'm glad you're with me for the right reasons."

He wasn't really surprised by the offer, even though they'd never talked about it. "I'm not going to say no to the help," he said. "But let's focus on getting out of here first. We can worry about killing Sho once we make sure he doesn't kill us."

She smiled. "Sounds like a plan."

They were nearing the dive site by then, but they were stopped in their tracks when they rounded a particularly wide green mushroom to find a corpse lying gutted on the soft soil. It was another inmate. Whatever had killed him had torn him open from groin to sternum. He stared up at the two of them, his face frozen in rictus terror.

"Tough way to go," Luna said solemnly.

Rix nodded. He didn't recognize the man, and though he'd seen enough death in this place to feel somewhat inured to it now, it was difficult not to feel at least a vague sense of horror. They were all just a bad dice roll away from meeting a similar fate.

As he gazed down at the body, his eyes landed on its tether. He cocked his head.

"What's that look for?" Luna asked.

Rix ignored her. Raising his staff, he called forth [Wind Blade], stepped forward, and swung out with a single well-placed chop, separating the man's head from his body.

Luna made a face, though there was a hint of curiosity in her eyes now too.

Slipping [Wind Blade] under the edge of the metal collar, he pried it free, raising his staff up so he could grab it with his other hand.

He turned to Luna and smiled. "I think we might just have the first piece of our escape plan."