Chapter 114 - Act 16. Chance, Connection, Inevitability (7)

When Yise returned to his residence, Ryu Seonghan was sitting cross-legged off to one side, cultivating. He rose when he spotted Yise. If he stopped cultivating just because someone had arrived, his concentration clearly left much to be desired.

"Why are you cultivating in someone else's house?"

"..."

"I'm joking. I wanted to see if you'd clutch your head."

"People tell you you're not funny a lot, don't they?"

"All the time."

One of the things he heard most often was, "That's not a funny joke." Most of the time, he hadn't been joking.

"I thought so. Anyway, how can you cultivate for a whole year without budging? It's downright creepy."

"A year? Has it been a year already?"

"Yes. You have no idea how much I agonized over whether to open your abode's door."

The periods he spent deeply immersed in cultivation kept growing longer. Only then did he realize why the spirit beast had run away. It had probably gone out because it was hungry. He felt a twinge of guilt.

"Where's the bird?"

"I forgot to look after it while I was cultivating. Looks like it ran away out of hunger."

"Ah, what a waste. Chances to tame a beast don't come often. You should have paid it more attention."

"Chance, my foot. It was just another mouth eating up my resources."

Just then, his divine sense picked up something flying toward him, followed by a clear, ringing chirp. The spirit beast Yise had hatched had returned. It fluttered eagerly toward him as though happy to see him, only to bump its head while trying to land on the windowsill.

"..."

Apparently, it hadn't accounted for how much bigger it had grown.

"Oh, so you didn't leave. You've grown a bit."

Over the past year, the bird had grown nearly to adulthood. With fuller plumage and a sleek body, it looked quite the spirit beast now.

"Why didn't you fly off and enjoy your freedom while you were out? It's not as though I take very good care of you."

The spirit beast bobbed its beak, squawking loudly. Then it dropped something from one talon. It was a juvenile snowfish. The bird raised its chin as if asking whether it had done well. A new gleam entered Yise's eyes.

"You know how to hunt."

He wasn't particularly fond of pets, but a hunting hawk was another matter. He was already wasting far too much time searching for ingredients for immortal cuisine. If it could so much as locate demonic beasts for him, it would more than earn its keep.

"Nice. I'll use you as a hunting hawk."

The spirit beast trilled happily. Ryu Seonghan, who had been watching with a fond smile, chimed in.

"Shall I get you a spirit-beast pouch? I can get one for seven hundred spirit stones."

"Sure. But let's make it six hundred."

"Ugh! Damn it. I should have asked for eight hundred."

Yise chuckled and added that six hundred was a fair price regardless.

"Have you made up your mind?"

"Yes. I'll do it."

"Good choice."

"Then I'll go home and pack my things. Give me the spirit stones in advance, and I'll buy the spirit-beast pouch on the way."

Ryu Seonghan returned a short while later and handed over a spirit-beast pouch that looked like a wrapping cloth.

"Just wrap the spirit beast in it. Call its name when you want to take it out. It holds up to three beasts. You'll need to give it food to take inside. They barely feel hungry in there, though, so you can also just feed it a hearty meal whenever you let it out."

"I've never seen anything shaped like this. Can people go inside too?"

"If it's someone you've personally bestowed a true name on? Your children, for instance. Whenever I get into trouble, the family head sometimes threatens to stuff me into a spirit-beast pouch."

Yise considered it. He hadn't realized he would need to give it a name, but if he was going to use it as a hunting hawk anyway, that much seemed fine. Naming it was difficult, though, since it had no distinctive features. Aside from feathers with red and silver mingled like dyes, it was just an ordinary large bird.

"A name... Hmm. Let's call you Emer."

"Oh, that's a good name. For emerging into the skies. Emer seems to like it too."

Emer fluttered its wings. Yise had merely shortened "emergency rations," but he quietly put Emer into the spirit-beast pouch without bothering to correct him.

Ryu Seonghan put on his Cold-Warding Pauldrons and announced that he was ready. The two headed out of the city.

"Oh, those Cold-Warding Pauldrons I took from you back then turned out to be expensive. I sold them for a dozen or so spirit stones."

"Oh, what a waste. Ugh. It's fine. I've put it all behind me. The Ghoststep Boots are actually more precious. They were hard to come by, even in a Core Formation city."

"How did you end up in the secret realm?"

"Ah, the Dark Heaven Secret Realm? Whenever a secret realm appears, the Heavenly Ice Palace sends a dispatch to all its subordinate factions. Every faction has to send at least one person."

So the palace had sent them in deliberately. It was a deployment of sorts, intended to reap a harvest.

"You can also enter freely if you want to, even if you haven't been selected. But you have to report whatever resources you acquire inside and sell anything the Heavenly Ice Palace wants, whether you like it or not."

With the cultivation world unified, they certainly seemed systematic about such matters.

"At the time, I was the only late-stage Qi Refining Cultivator in my clan, so I had no choice but to go."

"For someone who had no choice, you certainly seemed to enjoy hunting people."

"And what good did it do me? I never succeeded once."

Ryu Seonghan snickered and lifted himself on the wind, alighting atop the city wall. Yise rose aboard the Dream-Saving Cloud.

Their destination was the Heavenly Ice Palace. Yise would gather information in the areas outside the palace while Ryu Seonghan went inside to seek information about the Twin Principles Reversion Art. Perhaps things might work out easily after all, Yise hoped.

"But, Senior... are you going to ride that?"

"Of course. Why would I run when I have a flying ritual implement?"

"... Could I ride it too?"

"It's a single-seater. What makes a Qi Refining Cultivator think he gets to ride a flying ritual implement? Run."

Yise sped ahead, and Ryu Seonghan hurried after him on foot.

"Wait for me, Senior!"

* * *

They traveled for several days without rest. Yise was impressed by how well Ryu Seonghan ran. His movements in the secret realm had been unusual, and his skill with movement techniques was indeed far from ordinary.

"S-Senior. Please slow down..."

"Think of it as training. You're a good runner."

Realizing that Yise was taking a jab at what had happened in the secret realm, Ryu Seonghan grumbled.

"You hold grudges more than I'd expec—"

"Wait."

Yise cut him off. He immediately put away the Dream-Saving Cloud, crouched down, and used a Spirit-Concealing Talisman to cover the energy of his spirit-concealing ring.

"Use a Spirit-Concealing Talisman."

Ryu Seonghan hastily concealed his internal reserves with one as well. Still not satisfied, Yise burrowed into the snow to hide.

"What's wrong?"

"Cultivators. Quite a few of them."

They were too far away for Ryu Seonghan to see, so he simply kept quiet.

"..."

A group of roughly fifty Cultivators was moving swiftly past. Only after they had gone did Yise slowly rise.

"They look like trouble."

"Perhaps they're off to wage war against another city."

"Their robes were pink. Do you know the faction?"

"What? Pink robes... That's the Yun Clan's signature color..."

Ryu Seonghan scrambled up and checked where Yise had been looking and the direction of his gaze.

"No..."

Yise gave a small nod of confirmation. Pungryu City lay in the direction they were headed.

"Impossible! Without even declaring war? Are those lunatics going to ignore the Northern Continent's rules?"

Ryu Seonghan's face darkened abruptly.

"I'm sorry, Senior. I have to go back."

Without waiting for permission, he ran back the way they had come.

Rather than stop him, Yise followed at a leisurely pace. He had no desire to become involved in a war on another continent. If the Ryu Clan lost, however, he intended to rescue Ryu Seonghan alone and get him out, so far as circumstances allowed. The man was, after all, his bound subordinate and an important ally who would help him achieve his goal on the Northern Continent.

* * *

Pungryu City was burning. Battles raged everywhere. Yise watched the fighting from a deserted stretch of the city wall, well away from it all.

The course of the battle was rather strange. Ryu Seonghan had clearly said they were evenly matched, yet the Ryu Clan appeared to be suffering a fairly one-sided defeat.

"Who are you?"

A low voice reached Yise's ears. Startled, he concealed his reaction and slowly turned toward its source. A Qi Refining Cultivator was approaching, releasing the effects of an Invisibility Talisman and a Spirit-Concealing Talisman.

'Talismans that can even evade my divine sense?'

That was impossible unless they were extraordinarily effective. They were hardly the sort of things a Qi Refining Cultivator would possess. Yise stared at him, prepared to kill him to ensure his silence if necessary.

The Cultivator tilted his head as he tried to assess Yise's realm. With the Spirit-Concealing Talisman's effect still active, Yise would probably look like either an ordinary person or someone concealing his cultivation.

"Are you from the Demonic Valley?"

When Yise remained silent, the man took it as confirmation and began to ramble.

"The Demonic Valley is as thorough as ever. But please don't worry. We will carry out your orders without fail."

"Report the situation."

"Report? Ah... Yes. First, we've equipped every last ritual implement you bestowed on us. For now, only the Foundation Establishment Cultivators have taken the Spirit-Burst Pills, and we're hunting down Family Head Ryu Jin first... But are you really from the Valley? Could you show me something to prove—"

The Cultivator never finished. The moment he voiced his suspicion, Yise's hand axe flashed out and severed his head. Yise took his spirit-stone pouch, collected and used the Spirit-Concealing and Invisibility Talismans he carried, then concealed the scene by burying the Cultivator underground with an earth-attribute spell.

He understood the situation now. This was not something a Foundation Establishment city had undertaken alone. This battle was hopeless.

Yise narrowed the range of his divine sense to a minimum and made his way toward Ryu Seonghan, avoiding the Foundation Establishment Cultivators. Their battles were so loud and conspicuous that he could easily skirt them while remaining outside the reach of their divine senses. The battle had already tipped so far in one side's favor that it was practically a rout. That was probably thanks to the support the invaders had received from their backers.

Following the signal from the private soul-binding contract, he soon found Ryu Seonghan. He was fighting hard, but he was outnumbered and looked in danger of dying at any moment. Yise held his breath and watched the battle. If he intervened, he would have to kill every Cultivator present in one fell swoop to prevent trouble later.

'Four of them.'

A mere four Qi Refining Cultivators. Unless he made a mistake, none would escape.

Ryu Seonghan finally fell to his knees. One shoulder had been blown away entirely, and he screamed, bloody tears streaming down his face. As the four Cultivators lunged at him together like soldiers vying for battle honors, Yise revealed himself.

WHOOSH!

Keenly honed Wind Blades slashed the charging Cultivators to ribbons, and Yise buried his hand axe in the head of one of the two who survived. As the other recoiled in terror and tried to flee, Ground-Shadow Snare and Shadow-Net Formation activated together, binding his ankles and upper body. The next Wind Blade cleanly severed his neck.

Ryu Seonghan looked up at him, his face a ruin.

"Senior..."

Yise struck the back of his neck and knocked him unconscious. It would be awkward if he begged Yise to intervene in the war. Perhaps if Yise could be certain of his own safety, but otherwise...

'They posted sentries. There must be more Cultivators on the walls.'

If he involved himself any further in this war, his presence would certainly be exposed to the Essence-Draining Ghost-Demon Valley. It was an intuition that bordered on certainty. With Ryu Seonghan slung over his back, Yise slipped out of Pungryu City as stealthily as he could.