Thirteen
Ash stood up, looked around, and tried to figure out what he could see going on around him.
Nothing problematic was immediately nearby and no one seemed to be looking toward him, no one was searching with Qi, no one was flying, there was not a single thing out of the ordinary.
Not waiting, Ash took several steps to the edge of the building and then jumped down. Straight into the alley he’d been in moments before getting atop the building.
Throwing a glance down each side of the small narrow back-street, nothing jumped out at Ash as a problem. There wasn’t anything that made his defenses go up.
Other than the fact he still couldn’t reach the Hall, Locke, his Dao, or his Dantians.
Or the ability to see them and the planes they held.
He was quite literally locked out in a way that made him deeply suspicious since it had only occurred after the Assembly began but hadn’t yet ceased.
It made Ash feel like people were still hunting for survivors.
Qiao landed beside him and looked in both the same directions Ash had.
“I don’t see or hear anything other than what I would expect,” Qiao murmured quietly.
Kneeling down, Ash summoned Qi into his palm and went to dig into the ground.
He made it several feet down and impacted something that was impenetrable. As if the ground beneath the city itself were somehow warded against tunneling, digging, or getting beneath it.
It was something outside of his expectations, though he could see a reason for it now. It was a defense he’d need to include at his own sect. Because even as he thought about it in this moment, he realized he didn’t have any defense against someone burrowing up from below. He’d just assumed the hardened walls would be enough.
Even with reinforced concrete in all our sub-ground structures and walls, inscribed by me, there’s still things that could happen. I’ll need to insert flat stone planes at the perimeter of the sect and just beneath the surface.
I could just use Qi, actually, instead of stone, now that I think about it. Inscribe it as I create it and then bury it. It’ll make it so no one could dig through, around, or in my lands.
“Agreed,” Ash whispered and stood up to look at Qiao. She was right after all. There wasn’t anything outside of the expectation right now that was visible or auditory.
Not waiting, Ash then slipped an arm possessively around Qiao, pulled her into his side, and began walking out of the alleyway. He walked her right up to the street, into it, and began guiding her along.
As if he were a man out for a stroll with his woman.
Two young cultivators at the peak of their youth and enjoying one another’s company.
Qiao apparently was a person with a quick wit, because before he could apologize or say something, she’d turned into him, grabbed at his belt with one hand, and just about hung off of him. As if she were the lesser partner in this relationship but wanted him close.
He could hear her breathing forcefully. Long steady breaths in and back out. Even as they slowly meandered along the road.
The very road that the Assembly Ash came with was attacked and very likely perished on. Or at best escaped though Ash doubted that.
From where they stood, the road to the gate, was a very long walk.
A very… very… long walk.
It was an incredibly long walk by itself without even trying to fight people off. People who were trying to kill you outright while more people were likely on their way.
Even if they’d made it outside the gates, past the walls, how would they cover enough distance to get away from their pursuers. If they had some type of artifact or item that’d let them escape, that’d make sense.
As they walked Ash noted that were some large areas of the road they were on that looked as if they’d been scrubbed. Scrubbed vigorously.
As if a body had bled out right here and they would rather it be clean scrubbed then blood covered.
Shit.
Qiao pulled on Ash’s collar and pressed her face into his shoulder. Just about walking forward blindly while clinging to him. It looked natural as far as Ash could tell, but she had likely seen the very thing he had and didn’t want to see more.
Walking along, Ash kept his senses up as best as he could.
While he couldn’t pull on his Dao, his Hall, or all the benefits he had as Lord Sheng, he could still use Qi, his basic abilities, and his senses. His ability to sense Qi and it’s movements was inherent to him.
Right now, there was a swirling movement of Qi moving in one direction on the street.
It was moving counter to Ash and seemed to be the normal direction of Qi. That it was heading toward the center of the city, Ash would guess. Where Shen and the rest of his people likely were remaining.
Though if he really killed everyone who had attended the Assembly of Assemblies, the realm has a whole would be considerably weaker.
Not that Shen probably cares.
The thought was bitter and accusatory, but Ash didn’t feel it was unfounded. From everything he’d seen of the man, Ash was fairly certain that regardless of his situation, his goal would drive him.
Ash just had no idea what his goal was, other than perhaps taking over.
The thoughts rattling about in Ash’s mind were shoved to one side as the Qi began to change the way it flowed. It no longer flowed in one direction.
It was moving toward Ash from multiple directions.
Coming to a complete stop, Ash felt as the Qi started to drift away from where he was. Only to then shift again and begin moving toward him once more.
Somehow, someway, the enemy knew exactly where he was.
They were coming for him.
“Well shit,” Ash muttered.
“I… they’re coming?” Qiao intuited.
“Yeah,” answered Ash. He decided it was time to be Lord Sheng in action, if not recognition. Because he needed to escape here, but he needed to do it in a way that would let him return home without being chased.
Drawing on his Qi, he expanded it outward from himself.
He cocooned Qiao who let out a squeak before she was wrapped up like a mummy in Qi and then stuck to Ash’s back. At the same time, he wrapped himself up in Qi as well. A thick shell of it that would protect him from harm.
It would additionally keep him from being identified later. Only holes were made for him to see and breathe, which he did also for Qiao of course.
Though Ash pushed Qi into his senses. If he was going to fight in this cocoon, he’d need to sense and feel far more sensitively.
As he became a Qi mummy, Ash brought out twelve Qi-legs. Thin spider like appendages for eight of them, four were turned into weapons.
Not waiting there, Ash quickly stood up to a fifteen foot height and then began flinging himself down teh street at high speed. The spider legs clicking and thumping against the walking road as he charged toward the far distant exit.
Even as he ran on, he could feel himself picking up speed. Sliding into the strange yet smooth locomotion of how a spider scuttled. It was a great deal smoother than he expected it to be. Likely because multiple legs were touching the ground at at a time.
A group of Cultivators fell from the sky and hovered in the roadway directly in front of Ash. Even as he charged toward them they were preparing spells or abilities.
Realizing he couldn’t avoid a fight, Ash didn’t.
All four arms that were weapons came forward in slashing and stabbing attacks on the group of five in front of him. At the same time, half of the movement legs pulled up short to a skidding halt.
The other half became weapons and also lashed out.
Surprise was evident across all five faces as each one of them was attacked in that instant.
Unwilling to leave anything on the table, Ash tapped into his Dao, even though he couldn’t feel it. He opened himself up to the absolute belief in momentum and that he was momentum itself. He simply ignored the fact that he had been blocked from it.
Because one couldn’t halt momentum.
There was no true halting of something that was an abstract concept that was the definition of ever changing movement.
Even if he couldn’t feel the Dao, he believed it was active.
That right now, his momentum, his Dao, was so hard pressed, that it was almost unmoving.
Almost.
But not quite.
One of the spider legs impaled a rather pretty woman in her twenties through the shoulder and went through her. Punching right out her back. A man had a leg cut off by a different leg, though the other three cultivators dropped out of the sky, flew upward, or scrambled backward.
All the other limbs snickt stabbed, or slashed through the air.
Ash felt it in that moment.
Felt his Dao.
A shudder of movement as it ground forward.
Grinning ear to ear, Ash threw himself fully into his Dao. It didn’t matter if his momentum wasn’t moving, it was still his Dao, and it was still momentum.
In the first pass, Ash had managed to take out two, he needed to make sure he kept the momentum.
Slamming his weapon limbs downward and to the side, Ash wheeled himself around backward. Leaning on his Dao, his Qi sense, his Battle Cultivation, and letting himself lean into who he was.
He didn’t have to see his enemies, to know where they were anymore.
The rear legs he’d used to slow himself came around in whip like motion. Slashing out in a wave at staggered heights.
One of the three remaining cultivators got caught in the tangle of legs.
Curling his legs around that cultivator and pressing them to the Qi wall that was Qiao on his back, Ash scuttled backward to steps.
He noted that the Cultivator he’d stabbed was still stuck to his limb. Rather than try to shake her off, Ash just shifted his leg so the corpse went upward and got stuck at the joint.
Quickly as he could, Ash wrapped the Cultivator he’d trapped in his legs with strands of Qi. Cocooning them quickly just like a spider would. Then stuck it to the point his feet connected to the Qi shield.
The two remaining Cultivators, both men, rushed Ash. Weapons slashing out at his main body.
Deftly, Ash morphed two of his weapon limbs into swords, he deflected both of their attacks. Sensing their overwhelming momentum and Qi both.
Except in the moment that his Qi limbs struck their weapons, Ash realized he was a devasting force on the battlefield.
Because all it took was casual contact with him.
Ash morphed his weapon limbs at the moment of contact. Locking both weapons to the legs and then jerking them away from the men.
With a flick of his limbs, he sent the weapons shooting through the air.
At the same time, as the men stumbled forward trying to hang onto their weapons, Ash slammed six of his legs forward. Two from above, the other four from the sides.
With a splat the two men were hammered into one another.
Then diced as the legs passed through them. Carving them into horizontal chunks of gore that splattered across the ground in grotesque thumps.
Not waiting, Ash started scuttling forward once again. He noted the corpse stuck to the joint and casually plucked it off with one of the weapon limbs.
Only to find it struggling in his grasp.
Ash transfered it to the rear weapon limbs, wrapped her up in a Qi cocoon, and stuck her to the same spot he’d wrapped the other one up in. They would serve well as sources of information.
If he survived.
If they survived.
Even as he moved on, he could feel his Dao.
It was grinding along with infinite slowness.
But it was indeed moving.
Much like the last gear in a ‘heat-death of the universe clock’, it was moving. Just in a fractional way so slow that it’d be unmoving to the naked eye.
His Dao didn’t have to be spinning at high speed for it to be powerful.
Letting his Dao become his core Ash felt it in a different way. Each time he’d used it in combat, it’d gone straight to a peak point.
Now it was in such a lull that it was nearly still.
Yet it was the same.
Momentum didn’t require force or speed to be what it was.
And so too… do I.
Ash felt a strange unfolding in his mind. A concept that paired with his Dao, Lord Sheng, and the strange thoughts and feelings the Divine Brides and so many others pushed his way.
I am much like Momentum. I will keep moving. Even in stillness, I am moving.
The motion of the spider-like legs smoothed out even more and Ash could feel the speed going up.
A low speed in his Dao suddenly felt more like a large gear. When connected to something as simple as motion, it’d propel it at rapid speed.
Ash felt it first hand as he just about flew down the street toward the distant gate. The spider legs clicking more like a stick being run down a fence as a child sprinted by.
Rapid fire, loud, and violent.
It almost felt like actually flying considering how smoothly the motion was.
Ahead of him, a woman descended from the sky. She had one foot pointed down, the other held behind her knee, both of her hands were behind her back.
Ash activated Sneaky-Peeky even as he closed on her.
‘It looks like quite the gamble’ read the box as it unfurled.
Rather than feel concerned, Ash felt as if he were finally stretching.
That after a long time being relegated to moving slow and carefully, he was getting ready for a full out sprint.
I wasn’t challenging myself properly before this. I was too strong in a personal sense.
Now… I’m not.
Ash’s heart-rate sped up, he smiled, he felt an odd glee growing in his heart.
He felt like a Cultivator, not a young man from Earth.
I’m Lord Sheng.
Upon reaching the woman, Ash didn’t bother to wait. He launched at her after taking a short pause to bring his main body near the rear legs. Turning them into a coiled spring.
His front legs, as well as the weaponized limbs, were stuck out in front of himself in a deadly spear. Multiple points at varied distances from the center.
She would need to dodge a considerable distance to not be speared.
The look on her face went from confident o surprised in af lash.
Holding up both hands in front of herself she went to meet both of the legs Ash had put to spear her in the chest and abdomen. All the others were spread out.
It didn’t look like a great plan to Ash because he was airborn, all his weight moving forward with great speed. Momentum was literally on his side in this moment.
Apparently she realized that in the same moment. Her hands shifted position the moment she went to contact with his weaponized limbs. She pushed at one with a hand, brought her body around, and shoved off Ash’s limb.
It was knocked to the side, but didn’t alter or change Ash’s direction or velocity.
What she managed to do, was propel herself out of harm’s way though. She cleared the furthest Qi-limb by a foot or so, tumbling through the air.
“Lazy donkey roll,” Ash murmured to himself with a grin, hit the ground, literally rolled along the stones while curling his Qi-legs, and then popped up after some distance.
He landed upright and began scuttling backward. Even as he faced the woman who had come to challenge him. Ash wasn’t about to put his back to someone this strong, but neither was he going to remain in the city.
If she wanted to fight him, she would need to pursue him.
“Where do you… think… you’re looking?” asked the woman as she darted after him. She almost seemed unsure of what to think of a human shaped cocoon facing her. Her words becoming a question rather than a bold statement.
“Right at you,” Ash replied, all four weaponized limbs coming out to spear, slash, and stab at her. Two from one direction, the other two from different directions as well.
Her hands became flames and streaks of fire blew out from her hair and feet. She intercepted, two of the weapons coming her way and deflected them wide, while twisting her body around to avoid the other two.
Her hand dipped into nothing and came out with an odd umbrella that was folded. It looked to be made out of material that seemed like unstretched fabric but it didn’t billow around despite the speed of her flying.
No sooner than she cleared his attacks then she turned and began pushing to get closer to him again. She clearly realized he wasn’t going to fight her directly and she was adjusting on the fly.
Suddenly, she shot forward, spinning rapidly with her umbrella held out in front of herself. Flames came out from behind her like spiraling contrails and her umbrella unfolded.
“Fucking neat!” Ash said excitedly. He didn’t feel fear at the possibility of dying, which was quite real, but thrilled at having a fight to the death with someone who would push him.
Three of his limbs came up then down, spearing into the ground.
Ash pole-vaulted himself upward and off the ground, all of his limbs grasping at rooftops and buildings to begin traveling in that way, rather than hitting the paving stones.
It was enough to get him out of the way of her, though her umbrella did clip a leg.
Causing the whole of it to shatter apart into a million little pieces. Breaking away from the point it’d come out of.
Reforming it and letting his legs touch the street again with a spin, Ash was now chasing her while facing the gate. Rather than her chasing him and facing the wrong way.
The fire that’d been coming out of her washed over him and his cocoon, causing him to seal the holes he’d made to see and breathe out of.
When the heat that he could feel through his Qi died away he opened the holes again.
His opponent was out in front of him, her umbrella stuck out behind herself even as she faced him. As if she were holding onto a rocket, flames were still trailing out behind her.
From her and the umbrella as well.
Bolts of fire, spears, and waves of flame came out of her and struck his Qi cocoon, limbs, and Ash as a whole. Dodging the main body Ash protected himself and Qiao at all costs. Even to the point that he willingly sacrificed limbs without hesitation. Letting them take hits for the main body or being struck without a care.
Each and every time he reformed it in roughly a single second.
It did cause him a few stutter steps, but nothing terrible.
Instead of letting that slow him, especially when it became clear she was targeting his legs, Ash put more speed on.
Now that he was facing ahead, he could clearly see where he was going and felt more comfortable. Flinging his legs forward and backward in strange heavy galloping strides even as others hit the ground and pumped his body forward.
Even the legs that blew apart barely slowed him.
In no time at all he closed in on her.
Her eyes widened in somewhat of a panic when she found him looming over her. The large hulking spide-like body just about falling atop her.
Her umbrella snapped around, closed, and was pointed at him.
Tucking his legs once more, Ash went under her and the sudden and massive wave of fire and flame that shielded her and spread out in front of her, passing over him.
Ash wheeled down the street, his legs forming a strange wheel like shape and letting him rumble and slam along the stones. It briefly reminded him of a spider that did this on earth. Moving down sand-dunes in such a way.
Ash once more popped his legs out, nailed the landing, and ran on.
Ahead he could see the exit gate. There was a great number of Cultivators, guards, and people with weapons there. Along with a high number of people flying.
Leaning on his Qi-sea, which was half depleted by this point, his Dao, still grinding along slowly, and his own abilities, Ash kept going.
Rather then fight all those Cultivators, Ash decided he would go through them in one way, around in an other.
Pivoting to another leap, Ash thrust down one limb into the stones and popped upward.
At the same time, he spun his body at high speed. Forcing the limbs to speed even faster as he made the connection points much more liquid like.
Then he detached the limbs after turning them into multiple sharp flechette-like projectiles.
Hundreds and hundreds of Qi hardened to the point of being like a diamond and flung forward in the shape of a dart.
Seven or eight of the Cultivators went down, ten blocked, or dodged, and the nine or so that flew, went upward.
Regrowing the limbs, and burning through Qi far faster than he wanted, Ash lashed out at those that were flying. He flung liquid and thin tendrils of Qi at them.
Upon striking, Ash pulled on his Qi with all the strength he could muster.
Much as he expected, they resisted his pull and he didn’t try to stay his ground.
Instead, he used them like a slingshot.
He drew his Qi in rapidly, used them as the fork-limbs, and hurled himself upward and into the sky. Turning their defense into his exit.
The Qi-like spider shape Ash had formed around him flew through the air. Up and over the large wall.
And right out of the city.
Once he saw the ground coming up toward him, Ash reshaped his limbs into a thin and long needle like protrusion that eventually tapered out to the shape of where Ash, Qiao, and his two prisoners were.
No sooner than the tip hit the ground, then Ash modified the protrusion into the shape of a drill. The four weapon arms he turned into scoops that trailed behind him.
Waiting not at all, Ash began burrowing straight down into the earth and sealed up the holes that he’d used for his eyes and mouth. He quickly expanded the cocoon into a large cylinder, reshaped it to fit the drill, and pulled Qiao out of her own coccoon into the new shape. As well as the two prisoners he’d taken, but he left them tied up in Qi-strands.
“I… where are we?” asked Qiao as she sat down heavily on the floor of the cylinder.
Ash didn’t answer. He was focusing on making sure the trailing scoops had pulled a large amount of dirt back into the hole he’d made. Now they were digging along the roof of his hole to try and collapse it in on itself.
All as he dug downward at a forty-five degree angle into the earth.
“Ashley!? Ashley! What happened!?” Locke nearly screamed as he burrowed into the thick dirt.
Hey hon.
Was an ambush.
Shen showed up.
He killed a lot of people.
I think… the Assembly is entirely dead. Mostly dead?
A lot of dead.
Ours escaped the death trap but got ambushed in the streets.
Not sure what happened tot hem.
I did save Qiao though, so I at least have a witness other than me.
We escaped.
Currently pretending to be a mole.
Ash’s Qi drill paused briefly when it hit bedrock and he was forced to strengthen the bit.
Moving into a flat line Ash brought them paralell into the seam of rock, and then kept digging.
Stone would be much harder for other Cultivators to deal with than the dirt.
To him, it was just a matter of hardening the Qi drill.
Slowly, he began adding Qi to the drill, making it larger, altering the shape and design.
He removed the trailing scoops as well, they had served their purpose. He’d felt it when the dirt tunnel he’d made for himself had begun collapsing.
Now chunks of rocks were banging along the cylinder as he spiraled onward through the bedrock. Back toward the Sheng sect.