Chapter 5

It was rare but this time there was trouble and I wasn't the one who started it, rather, it had been seventh shixiong. Seventh had brought over a spirit animal on one of his missions, the legendary nine-tailed fox, and insisted on keeping it as a pet although the sect rule forbids any outside animal spirit from coming in. So now not only did seventh shixiong break the sacred sect rules, he had lost the animal too. Thus my role this time is to be the hero to this distressed shixiong and find the fox and in return, he promised to pay me the appropriate sum. Ahhh lured in by the gold again.

It was the brink of winter, one of the coldest winters yet. I draped myself with fur coat linings for warmth and sneaked my way into the sect's library's upper floor to retrieve a tracking artefact that only shizun, Jin, second and probably and fifth shixiong (and now secretly I) knew the exact location too.

I used to play a lot up here when I was newly appointed as a disciple of the Red Hills. Playing tricks while hiding in the dark on the shixiongs so often that they now believe it was hunted by vengeful spirits so now it was seldom visited by the younger disciples of the sect. I grabbed a golden sphere-shaped globe from the deepest bookshelf and moved out with quick strides.

I spent an entire three days outside. It was tiring, it was cold, and there were a lot of people fledging in the bustling marketplace asking me if I wanted to buy a ticket to see the beauties at the flower houses in the district, but I finally managed to capture the mischievous nine-tailed fox on the loose and had placed him conveniently in the space bag I brought along (another magic artefact I stole from another time).

I was already late, I hadn't expected to spend this much time outside and made my way back to the sect in haste. I expected to see two gatekeepers in armours at the entrance, but there were none and I grew vigilant. Throughout the years, the gatekeepers had never abandoned post come hail or storm they were like immovable Mt Tai. My stride became a full print and my heart grew heavy. Something is wrong.

I ran to shizun's place first and saw that there were no other disciples waiting on shizun by his door either. This wasn't right. Shizun was supposed to be in seclusion right now, now more than ever the placement of several disciples to guard him was only right and crucial. A cultivator who's undergoing seclusion to advance in rank was at his most vulnerable. The disciples won't dare take this lightly. I burst through every door I can find in the estate. "Shizun!"

I keep yelling for shizun over and over till my voice cracked, but there was no sight of shizun or any of the other shixiongs. My heart palpitated and my intestines shrank.

Suddenly I saw a burst of flame erupting to the sky burning the unfortunate clouds in its way coming from the back of the mountains and I took off running as fast as my feet can manage.

The entire Red Hills disciples were gathered there but so was an army of what seemed like humans with horns and canines for teeth, but the most distinctive features were their eyes, and all of them were geared up in their battles uniforms. I saw second shixiong first and hollered out to him. "Second shixiong!"

Second was momentarily confused as to who had called out to him from the snow caked woods and was even more confused when he saw the dishevelled me standing on the summit of the mountain. "Nineteenth shidi! What are you doing here?"

What does he mean what am I doing here, was I not supposed to be here? Second shixiong climbed up the hill and held my shoulders. "You can speak?" I raised a quizzical brow. The demon clan and the disciples of the sect were already locked in an intense battle down the hill, from here I heard the sounds of weapons clashing, bows releasing arrows in unison, and swords piercing through flesh.

"Shizun came out from seclusion early because we all thought shidi was trapped by the demon clan here. How did shidi escape?"

I ran back to the woods as fast as I could.

It was a trap

I heard second shixiong calling out to me from the distance.

I didn't run very farbefore I saw barrages of lightning attacks striking down a tall mountain. Themountain collapsed in a sudden gust of white mist when one particular colossallightning gave it the finishing blow it needed before it tumbled down in rapid succession. There was a crack in the earth and I felt shizun's energy flowing through it as it seems to stretch for miles, from the mountain to where I was and beyond before the avalanche happened and everything within its radar was covered with thick snow.

I panicked. "Shizun!" Shizun was there. The demon army was merely a diversion; the real target had been shizun all along. And I was the bait.

"Shixiong! Jin shixiong! Jin Bei!" I cried out as loud as I could because I know he was there too. Shixiong's elemental magic was lightning and only his lightning had that purple glint to them when released.

I can't believe it, that shixiong would go this far, that he'd be driven to kill his own shizun who taught him everything he knew no matter how mad he was. Shixiong can't, he simply wouldn't.

When I arrived at the place where I picked up shizun's energy the strongest, it had been where the snow was at its thickest and I would have trouble walking alone if not for the years building up my physical foundation and qinggong. There was no sight of shizun and I suspected that shizun had been buried under the thick layers of frost.

I dug the pile with my bare hands, even when my hands had turned blue I still dug so desperately because I feel shizun's flicker of energy thinning the longer he was in the snow. Shizun was dying. It shouldn't have been this way, shizun should have been strong enough to escape from a mere avalanche all on his own but because he came out of his seclusion early, he had hurt his dantian and foundation leaving him weak.

My eyes were blurry, and the wetness that had been falling had already condensed to ice. It was too deep, I can't see shizun. Faster, I have to dig faster, shizun's suffocating and he's cold. Shizun would never let me be cold, even when he was mad at me for something I've done, he had always sent the shixiongs to deliver me a blanket when I was made to kneel.

Shizun's face came through first. I was sobbing by the time because shizun looked like he was in deep sleep with dreams so pleasant he doesn't want to wake up. I pulled the rest of shizun's body up and cradled his upper torso to keep delivering energies to feed his body but there was no change in shizun's temperature and his heart had long stopped beating. There were wound marks that tore through shizun's clothes and it made my eyes sore.

I keep rocking his body to wake him from his dream. If shizun doesn't wake up now I'll burn down the peach blossom field of second shixiong and he won't ever be able to eat the peaches there again. I'll go visit that flower house and indulge in the sisters there and swear to not pick up another scripture for the rest of my life. I won't grind inksticks for shizun anymore. I'll put those obscene drawings in shizun's coffin so even when he's already halfway to the underworld I'll anger him so much he'll have no choice but to come back and give me a piece of his mind.

I don't know how long I stayed like that but I saw second and fifth shixiong who at some point climbed up and they were already by my side trying to pull shizun off me but my hands were frozen solid in their place and wouldn't budge a bit.

Streams of fire arrows found their way to us but I couldn't bring myself to move. The flames looked hypnotizingly pretty, just like Jin shixiong's eyes.

I felt second shixiong's hand shoving me away from the onslaught of the oncoming arrows. "Shidi, you have to go now! We're losing Red Hills. The demons have overtaken us."

"Eldest shixiong is going to find you next. Hurry, run!" Shixiong was so funny, to where do I run? There are no other places to go.

I looked at shizun, if shizun tells me to go then I'll go. But second shixiong was adamant, he pulled me up by my cold limbs and gave me a firm push. "Shizun wouldn't want you in this fight. Go! Find Ah Bai."

I wasn't thinking clearly, maybe my brain had frozen too? With nowhere else to go I walked towards where Ah Bai is.

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qinggong - a martial arts technique for making the body extremely light in weight, by altering the distribution and flow of qi.

dantian - a core energy centre of the body. It has important focal points for meditative and exercise techniques such as qinggong and martial arts.