Heaven's Golden Finger - Chapter 25: Chapter 25

Rather than risk Shirong being dragged off by Master Qiong again, Master Feng decided they should leave by the northern gate. Tong Si promised to meet them at the inn on the south side of town, which bothered Shirong. Only when they were alone, dressed in plain travel clothes again and hurrying towards the north side of town, did Shirong ask, "If he's King, shouldn't he stay home?"
"That man couldn't stay home and do his job if they chained him to the throne."
"Why is he the chaotic one and you're the calm one, if he's Chosen and you're... not." Shirong couldn't bring himself to use the title Adversary. Hell, he didn't think much of the title Chosen, either.
"Mn. True. But you and your Shixiong took our place when you were born. It never suited Tong Si to be honest. Becoming King only made it harder for him. He'd expected to be sent off as a diplomat, not plunked onto the throne."
Yet another of those local details Master Qiong had failed to share with Shirong. Leifeng Sect disciples were supposed to go out into the world and practice their cultivation among the people. How was he supposed to do that when he knew precious little about the people he'd be walking amidst?
A thought occurred to him. "What about Mo Qingshe?"
"I had that nuisance fox child go tell her to meet us at the north gate."
Nuisance fox child? Oh, that had to be Liang Ren. "Why would you involve him? He's trouble." In fact, it wouldn't surprise him at all if Liang Ren had stolen that Flame Lotus thingy.
Master Feng chuckled at the suggestion. "He almost certainly did." At Shirong's stare, she added, "Not that it'll do him any good. It's locked in a case only I or my husband could open. That's why I was never particularly bothered by the thing's disappearance. I knew no one could use it."
She could have told them that earlier. Except Shirong realized she was hiding the fact to see what the potential thieves said. "So it's still useful?"
"Not to you or Disciple Shun. You've got two Attributes already. You use it without knowing what you're doing, you'll be forcing the universe to make a new Chosen for itself. And your Shixiong's got a movement and is well on his way to forming a second Attribute the traditional way."
That was true. Shun Shixiong had a second element now and with sufficient cultivation, could probably use it to push his first element into Attribute stage. Which brought to mind another question. "Will he be able to keep cultivating with his seal broken?"
"That I don't know. I'm no expert on demons. You might ask Miss Mo."
"Ask me what?" Mo Qingshe's sudden appearance beside them startled Shirong into knocking a cabbage from a food vendor's cart. "Oops."
"Don't do that." Shirong picked up the cabbage. Brushed it off. Examined it carefully. "It isn't hurt, ma'am," he told the old woman glaring at him. "But I'll buy it if you want me to."
A skinny old palm appeared inches from his face, answering the question. As he paid, he told Mo Qingshe, "I was wondering if Shun Shixiong's demonic seal being broken would mean he can't practice Leifeng cultivation?"
"He might. Might not. Depends on how good he is at separating the two energies. Some folk never can."
Master Feng interrupted. "The question I have is why are you waiting for us here, instead of back at the inn where young Liang Ren was supposed to tell you to be?"
Realizing Master Feng was right, Shirong tucked the cabbage away in his spatial ring and eyed Mo Qingshe. "Well?"
"Oh, that." Before either of them could complain, Mo Qingshe said, "I got tired of being glared at by your fellow disciples."
Fellow disciples? They were supposed to be going to that inn to avoid Shirong's adopted father. Why would there be Leifeng disciples there? Then he understood and turned to Master Feng. "Is there any reason to leave by the north gate anymore?"
"No. We were just going to catch up with your slave here."
Again Shirong flinched at the word 'slave'. Again he ignored what he couldn't change. "Then where do we go afterwards? Because if there are Leifeng disciples waiting for me it's almost certain Master Qiong sent them." And if Master Qiong sent them, it was likely to make sure Shirong did what his adopted father wanted.
And that would almost certainly not be to Shun Shixiong's benefit.
Guessing Master Qiong had probably sent his disciples to intercept Shirong and bring him back to the sect, they changed course entirely and headed back towards the south end of town. Which, in turn, led them to realize there were disciples waiting there as well.
"Your Master is a determined man," Master Feng murmured when they tried the east gate. "We could go to the west, but it's already past noon and I'd hate for Tong Si to get bored and set the city hunting for us."
Given the Bazi King could do that exact thing and given they didn't want the attention, that didn't seem a good idea at all. "You had Young Mistress Lu open a way to the palace. Could your soul space do something similar?"
"It could, but I hesitate to bring a demon through. It can get tricky."
Shirong frowned. "My soul space didn't have any trouble with Shun Shixiong." Both women stared at him and he realized he hadn't mentioned the place before now. "When we escaped that dragon...."
"Dragon? What dragon?" Mo Qingshe demanded.
"I'll tell you later." He focused his attention on Master Feng. "When we escaped the dragon I told you about...."
"He tells her but he won't tell me."
"....Shun Shixiong managed to protect us by cultivating his movement."
"It's not like I'm important or anything...."
"But that didn't get us out of that place. Something happened to form a soul space and we fell through. Shun Shixiong being there didn't cause any trouble."
"...And all he does now is say 'hush'."
"I'm going to say and do a lot more if you aren't quiet. I haven't had a chance to talk about it and I don't know enough to understand any of this."
Looking highly amused, Master Feng murmured, "You have a bit of the natural chaos too, don't you?" Before Shirong could try to answer, she added, "Was that soul space yours alone? Or did Shu Shun have some part in it?"
Wondering how she'd guessed, he admitted, "The latter."
"Young Shun is only part demon, whereas Miss Mo here is full blood. It's possible for demons to exist in my soul space, but it has to be properly prepared for them. I'd need my husband to help me alter things so she could enter."
"As always," Mo Qingshe lamented. "Demons aren't trusted."
"They're also more difficult to account for," Master Feng pointed out. "You know as well as I do that your presence disrupts spiritual presences. Even when you're trying to be careful you can still break the patterns of our spiritual space and possibly drop us out into the place outside the worlds."
Shirong asked, "What if she were inside my spatial ring? She didn't disrupt that."
Mo Qinghe sneered. "I'll go back inside if you order it, but do you have any idea how unpleasant having your body solidified like that?"
It hadn't occurred to Shirong, but he also hadn't asked. A fact he found embarrassing. "Well, we have to get out of town somehow. Preferably without my adopted father figuring out where we've gone."
Mo Qingshe considered the question. "Will you trust me to take you through the shadows? It won't be easy and it won't be safe, but now you have your swords it should be doable."
Shadows? "I don't understand."
"Demons belong to the chaos outside the world. That's why it's dangerous for Master Feng to allow me into her space without proper preparations. I can walk that chaos. I can bring the two of you with me. But if I do, you will have to defend yourself from what lies beyond. Things that do not live yet seek life will hunt you down."
By which Shirong guessed he'd have to fight them off. Well, he hadn't learned to summon weapons so he could dance around looking pretty with them. "All right. Then do that." He turned to Master Feng. "If you don't want to...."
"No. No, I'm interested. Truly interested. Seeing the power I once wielded as Adversary in its natural place would be a pleasure." Master Feng smiled, "Besides, this would be an excellent opportunity for you to practice suppressing chaos. Because that's all there is, out there."
Chaos was unexpectedly pretty. Gorgeous, in fact. The wild colors flickering around them reminded Shirong of the rainbow sheen on oil. Or the iridescent pattern of Shun Shixiong's scales. No doubt there was a reason for this. Quite likely Shun Shixiong's snake form was partly affected by his nature as the Adversary.
What wasn't pretty, nor pleasant, were the things that kept trying to slam into Shirong and Master Feng. They weren't interested in Mo Qingshe, but that was no surprise. She belonged in this place. They didn't.
"I really didn't think getting that advanced copy of Beat Saber was going to be this useful," Shirong muttered to himself as he cut and cut. Things kept flying at them, blobs of some sort, all trying to slam them off the path Mo Qingshe had created for them.
"Beat Saber?"
"It's a video game." Noticing both Mo Qingshe and Master Feng's confused expressions and realizing he'd used the words 'lightning play', he sighed. "From my other life. Vee dee oh game. You'd have to be there to understand."
"An odd name. Why would anyone be fool enough to play with lightning?"
"You don't. It... Oh, I can't possibly explain." He probably wouldn't be making any major changes to history by doing so. This place was so far back in time and so different from the reality he'd known as Song Shirong that he suspected knowing about it wouldn't matter. But explaining meant explaining other things in a constantly expanding list of details.
Before Mo Qingshe could demand more, Master Feng murmured, "You are, most likely, correct. The future is another country."
Now that was so like a phrase Shirong knew from his other time period that he almost wondered if Master Feng knew more than she admitted. "Best to stay focused, child. Even if there are similarities, this is not a game."
It wasn't, either. Every so often a shard of the blobs hit him in the arm or face, icy cold sucking up his life. These things weren't alive, according to Mo Qingshe, but they sought life. In the human world they were called shadow-beings. Here in Chaos, they had no name because demons had no use for them.
The things not being alive made it easier for Shirong. He'd yet to actually kill anyone thus far and he'd hate to start now on creatures whose only fault was being in their way as they passed.
Cutting and slashing, Shirong focused on his movements, doing his best to follow the sword forms he'd been taught. Thank goodness he'd paid attention to them before he'd been blasted forward in time and dragged back. His old self could so easily have ignored the training on the assumption that the Chosen one need learn nothing simply because he was chosen.
"Watch out," Master Feng murmured in his ear. "Something else comes. Not a shadow being."
It was a demon, Shirong realized, following her pointing finger. A billowing piece of what looked like fabric. Except his readings as Song Shirong told him what the thing was. Hundun, a monster of primal chaos. Well, no surprise to find it here, but could he fight it?
"I'm going to find an exit," Mo Qingshe told them. "We're surely far enough away from the city now."
"Do," Shirong urged, stepping between her and that thing. An exploratory slash cut through the hundun but didn't stop its progress. Worse, the injury sealed itself within moments. Again, no surprise. Not really.
Master Feng drew one of her jade pattern tablets from her pouch and grabbed hold of one of the shadows passing by, fleeing the hundun. "Here, you. Build this."
To Shirong's surprise, the thing did as she ordered, creating a massive cage that surrounded them entirely. It trapped them, but it protected them too. Even when the hundun twisted sideways to try and pass through the bars it failed. Lightning flickered from top to bottom of the cage, searing the thing reaching out for them.
"Mo Qingshe, is there anything I can do to help you?"
"Watch the patterns below us. We need a Pleiades conformation."
The patterns were constellations and stars and the Milky Way itself. It took Shirong a moment of desperate searching before he saw the stars of the Pleiades flickering in the shadows beneath his feet. "There!" he pointed.
"Cut!"
Unsure of himself but having no better idea, Shirong slashed with both swords at once, slicing open a hole below them. One that sucked them through before he'd a chance to recover. They flew into the air several yards before gravity reaffirmed their existence and dragged them down again.
Landing on something soft, smooth and scaly, Shirong blinked at what lay beneath him. Dark black, glittering with the fires of Chaos, elegant little head flat to the ground and somehow managing to look just as disgusted with him as he did in human form. "Shun Shixiong! Thank the Gods! I was so worried about you."
The snake couldn't speak, but Shirong sensed Shun Shixiong's thoughts. He was an idiot and too noisy. Also he needed to get up so his Shixiong could do something about that Chaos they'd just appeared from. Preferably before it consumed the whole forest.