Chapter 116
Dwelling of the Cursed
Yue sighed as she swept out with her sword, cutting down yet another shadowed figure that tried to attack her from the back. They'd been descending down the tunnels for four days now, and it was... well, mostly boring. Every night, 'at midnight' (or whatever counted as midnight here), Gon would scatter some powder around them, and that would buy them about six to seven hours of calm and peace. Gon would use it to sleep, and Liang and Yue would use it to meditate. They, temporarily, suspended the habit they picked up from Master Leo, electing not to give in to the sleeping habits in consideration of where they were.
However, after the four days (or, well, nights), they felt they could have just slept. And could have foregone spending what few Spirit Stones they had on those powders and pills. It was almost anti-climactic, in a way, how easy they found the descent.
They were only attacked by the Demonic Beasts and an occasional bandit, however, which was why neither of the two truly dropped their guard. Though they were never challenged, they also never saw a challenging number of foes approach them. It was mostly one-offs, or a small, desperate band who likely saw two kids descending through the dark and found them easy pickings.
The word had to have spread, Yue felt, as the last fifteen hours or so were entirely conflict-free. Nobody attacked them; nobody seemed to even be stalking them, as though the dark mist had parted and merely... let them through.
"Ah, here it is," Gon said as he pointed toward yet another alcove. "We'll camp here," he said and casually walked over, tossing the bag and sitting up on the bench carved out from the wall.
Yue didn't like how often they took breaks, and she felt it would have been better to simply continue, but unless Liang brought it up, she would keep it to herself. Whether it was in consideration of the old man's stamina or perhaps for another reason, her strange Junior Brother didn't complain, merely shrugging as their eyes met and walking into the alcove as well. Yue followed, spreading out her Divine Sense momentarily, finding nothing.
She thought back further to the journey through serpentine passageways, dark and humid. Gon wasn't lying when he said that the life here was practically non-existent. Petrified roots bulged around the corners, gray moss covering them. They often indicated the existence of calcified veins, though considering they were veins of oort, the roughest yet most breakable ore, they were practically worthless, so mining them wouldn't yield any wealth.
It was a subterranean abyss, with the tunnels yawning into echoing chasms, the winds howling through the winding ways. She couldn't imagine herself living here as it was even a greater prison than her clan was. There were no tall walls or stationed guards following whoever went in and out, yes, but that was just about the only thing it didn't have.
"We're making a lot of progress," Gon said. "Way quicker than I thought. At this pace, I am comfortable saying we shall reach the Sword within 30 days, if lucky."
"No." Liang suddenly voiced out.
"N-no?"
"It's too long." It seemed that her Junior Brother didn't like the prospect of spending a month here either.
"I--I understand, but that is already a miraculous speed. Most other groups take at least half a year to descend, if not more!"
"Starting after this break," Liang said. "We're instituting a new schedule: two days of progress, two hours of break."
"W-what? No, I can't--"
"--I'll carry you," Liang said. "And we'll be going fast. You just have to guide us."
"That is suicidal!!"
"Isn't that why you're here, anyway?" Liang's tone cooled slightly, and Yue caught sight of Gon wincing and recoiling back. "You came here believing you would die, so why do you care?" The old man fell silent, looking away. "You're fine with it, Senior Sister?" he asked with a grin, prompting her to sigh and roll her eyes.
"Yes, I'm fine. So, you feel it too, huh?"
"Hm," Liang nodded, and the two exchanged a look without saying anything.
That resonance they felt all the way on the surface grew—rather than a distant drum, it now felt as though it was just there, merely out of their reach, taunting them. The deeper they dwelled, the easier it became to breathe, ironically. Even within these winding, claustrophobic tunnels bereft of light, Yue felt it was almost as easy to breathe as it was in the Forest. She didn't even have to cultivate to notice her realm slowly expanding, as she inched ever so closer to the next part of her evolution.
If it was this tantalizing so far above the bottomless abyss of the Cradle, she selfishly wondered just how magical it was all the way down there. She knew that they wouldn't go to the true bottom, not just a couple of months before the flood. But even getting just to the Sword, she felt, would aid her in exponentially increasing her realm, perhaps even somehow managing to break through and reach Spirit Creation, just like Liang.
It was a bit of a fool's dream, she knew; if breaking through a realm was merely connected to one's Qi, those Holy Sons and Daughters would be at Soul Ascendance Realm before they learned how to crawl. The greatest stopgap, always, was knowledge—well, not knowledge, as in knowing things, but closer to 'enlightenment,' as in 'understanding things'.
While, on the surface level at least, the difference between the two seemed negligible, they ran deep and wide.
Knowing, for instance, meant that she knew Spirit Creation Realm was about reforging the Core into a Spiritual Beast of her make. Understanding, though, meant that she understood precisely which Beast belonged to her, more so than anything else.
They rested for approximately six hours before Liang stood up, picked Gon up, and started their accelerated descent. The old man appeared indignant but didn't speak—not after the accusation. It was clear that, even if he did come here initially expecting to die, his plans were changed and reforged under the weight of reality.
Liang didn't merely speed up; he started using the 'Simple Steps Art' to rapidly navigate both the straight descent and the curving corners. Yue followed in his footsteps, and he seemed to know precisely what the comfortable speed was for her, which she both found endearing as well as ever so slightly infuriating. She hated that he had to limit himself for her, yet knew there was no other way.
He would pause every once in a while and ask Gon for directions before resuming the descent.
In just four hours, they made more progress depth-wise than in the past four days. They came to an abrupt halt, and Yue knew precisely why as Liang put Gon down and ushered the old man back toward her.
The shadows first hid them, but not well; there were shapes breaking out, and soon they were in the faintest of lights that came beaming from the nearby tunnel opening. There were six of them, four men and two women. And all six were... odd. Not in any particularly destructive way, but in small, subtle ways that she'd only consider minor 'deformities' in the outside world. Here, though, she felt it meant something more.
"You're rather quick, darling," one of the women spoke to Liang, ignoring Gon and her. She had long, golden hair and was rather tall—a good head or two taller than Yue—with the 'one thing' being that she had an opening across her chest, directly between her breasts, that looked like a second mouth. "Not quick enough to escape us, though. Just a friendly warning." Liang stayed silent, and Yue didn't know exactly what his plan was—though they had bought some supplies for precisely these moments, for some reason Yue didn't think her Junior Brother appreciated being stopped. "You are rather brave, to come this far down so... ill-equipped. But I'm feeling generous. For a fair price of all your food, your clothes, and your guide, I'll let you go back up where you belong. Think carefully before you reply, okay? I'm rarely this generous~"
"Funny," Ah, Yue sighed, slowly moving her hand to her sword.
"What is?"
"Unlike you, I'm not feeling generous at all."
It all happened relatively quickly—Yue stepped forward and swiftly intercepted the two who were hiding in the shadows, easily beheading them both in one attack, protecting Gon. At the same time, Liang used his bare fists to kill everyone except the woman, who... changed.
"This," Liang said, turning toward Yue while holding the woman by her neck, lifted in the air. Gone was the seductively conscious woman, in her stead a mindless beast. Her face was degloved, flesh pulled back, revealing bones and tendons and rotting teeth. Her entire body was like a candle's wax, almost, off-putting and terrifying. "Is the Rage."
"I didn't see her change," Yue said, cautiously walking up. "It happened fast."
"Hm," Liang nodded.
"Why--why are you being so cruel?!" Gon voiced from the back, prompting the two to look at him. "Just, just kill her already!"
"Cruel?" Liang arched his brows, but before he could say anything else, Yue drew her sword and killed the woman, yanking her from Liang's arms and signaling to him with her eyes to shut up.
"Clean it up," Yue told Liang before turning and facing Gon. The old man had an aggrieved expression, and she smiled as empathetically as she could, crouching to meet his eyes directly. "Sorry. My Junior Brother can be a bit... well, you saw it."
"A monster," Gon mumbled.
"Hm, not quite," Yue said. "A protector," she added. "We all become consumed by something primal every once in a while. It doesn't define who we actually are, however, merely what we're capable of." Gon finally looked away from Liang who was tossing corpses out of the tunnel and over the edge of the cliff, and met her eyes. "I've never seen one," she added. "Or experienced what they are like. No... what they can be like. He simply wanted me to see more of this world and went a bit too far in doing so."
"... I need a moment," the old man said, retreating into the nearby corner without waiting for either her permission or denial. Yue sighed, standing up and walking over to Liang who had just finished cleaning up.
"Purposefully riling him up? Really?" she asked.
"You think I'm a monster, too?"
"Oh, give me a break," she rolled her eyes, sighing yet again. "What were you even hoping to accomplish?"
"I wanted to see whether his knife would be in our backs when it counted the most," Liang said.
"And?"
"And it will."
"Really? That's what you saw?"
"You didn't?"
"No," she shook her head. "I just saw an old man weathered by time and age be angered because you made him angry. Look, I know you have your lessons, and they're probably the right ones," Yue added, gently putting her hand on his chest. "But, ask yourself this: who is our Master?"
"..."
"If he were here, would he tell you that you made the right choice?"
"... no."
"What would he say?"
"Something like 'pay forward the kindness so you can receive it back twofold'."
"Yes, something like that," the two shared a smile. "I always have my fingers on the scroll and the feather. No matter what comes, we can always go back home. But for him, this is a one-way journey. Whether he thought it would end somewhere back over or deeper still. And even if he is a sympathizer, just as you say, and even if it goes against every bit of common sense... is that the worst thing in the world? Everything about our Master goes against all common sense, no?"
"Fine," he relented, lifting his arms up in the air and smiling. "You win. I guess this is why you're the Senior Sister."
"And you better never forget it."
"Maybe I will," he chuckled. "It's been a while since someone lectured me. It was... kind of nice."
"... yeah, maybe I just take that scroll and leave you and the old man to sort this place out."
"You'd never do that," he ruffled her hair gently, turning away. "You love me too much."
She harumphed and pushed his arm away, quickly fixing her hair and glancing over at his broad back framed by the tunnel's exit. Love? Hardly. And never.