Chapter 497 - Ripples (IV)

Chapter 497

Ripples (IV)

Duo Xin stared absentmindedly at the drifting skies above; it had been raining straight for three days, sapping her of desire to go outside.

Not that there was much to see. She'd returned to her Sect just yesterday after over a week of travel by the warship, and the entire place was in a complete uproar. Sect Master gathered together two Prime Elders and dozens of active ones and boarded an even fancier warship, setting out to 'seek justice' immediately upon learning the broad strokes of what happened.

Just like all her brothers and sisters, she remained silent about what truly happened.

Though, in fairness, she wasn't entirely sure what exactly happened, either.

She caught the tail end of it, emerging upon the edge of the cliff, where she saw the battle that left her breathless high up in the sky. The Senior they've been 'escorting' and 'keeping safe' was there, in the image of life beyond life, enshrined in the sky like a statue of Pangu himself.

He was the light to the darkness and shadow, and he made her heart a storm of chaos that was yet to recover. She'd seen her Sect Master and other Elders fight before, and none of them made her feel that way. Not even close.

When they asked what happened, she told them they got trapped, and by the time they reached the exit... there was nothing there but a sea of corpses and rivers of blood. Everybody else said the same.

But... her Master did not believe her, because her Master knew her.

"You're still here?" the familiar voice came a moment before the doors were flung open, and a tall, broad woman walked through. Her Master was a rather unique woman, a rare combination of a Body Cultivator and a Beastmaster.

She stood at six and a half feet tall, at least, with shoulders twice as wide as Duo Xin's and muscles so prominent they looked almost carved. Her skin was a mix of copper and bronze, and her hair was shaved fully as she proclaimed it got in the way of her fists.

Though an intimidating presence and someone most other kids in the sect feared, Duo Xin knew that her Master was a gentle giant... when not angry.

"Where else would I be?" Duo Xin asked back rather lazily, looking back out through the window. "Do you not see the weather?"

"Hah, your talking back has gotten even bolder! Maybe we should go for a spar so I can see what you have to back it up with?"

"If you want to beat me up, just beat me up," Duo Xin said.

"... I really do."

"..."

"What could possibly have happened in that place for you to hide it from me, Xin'er?" The tone of her Master's voice suggested genuine hurt, and though Duo Xin felt the guilt bubble up, she pushed it back down. She still didn't dare glance over to her, as she couldn't bear to look at that giant's hurt expression.

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"Nothing," she said. "I already told you and everyone else what happened. Didn't all of my brothers and sisters confirm it?"

"I know you more than anyone else, and I know when you're lying."

"Maybe I've changed in the time we've been apart," Duo Xin said.

"If you did, there's no sign of it. You're still the same snotty brat from before."

"Ever the same, you two." Duo Xin's ears perked up as she shot to her feet, turning toward the room's entrance. There, a short and stubby man stood, gray hair and beard nearly completely covering his face.

"Uncle Yiu!" she shot over and near crouched to properly hug the old man, who laughed somewhat merrily.

"Ho ho, did little Xin'er miss her uncle?"

"Of course!" she exclaimed. "Where were you?"

"Ho ho, places little one, just places," the man replied. "Are you bothering my favorite niece, Xiulan?"

"Tsk, you're finally out. I really thought you'd croak this time."

"Ho ho, I can't croak before you do."

"Gods, I hate your laughter. What do you want? I'm surprised you didn't go chasing after Sect Master."

"All I want is to talk with my niece," he said. "In private." The atmosphere was rather strange, Duo Xin realized; though they were never all that friendly with each other, they still always put on some pretense while with her, at least.

"... fine." Her Master raised her arms in defeat and headed through the door as Uncle Yiu and Duo Xin moved in. "Rest well, Xin'er. Your Conference Ceremony is scheduled for a week from today."

"Do you want to drink anything, Uncle?" Duo Xin asked.

"Just water is fine," the man said as the two sat on a pair of chairs facing the windows. "How are you?"

"Fine," she said. "A bit bored."

"Hm."

"What's wrong?"

"... you didn't tell them the whole story," her uncle said somewhat enigmatically. "None of you did."

"What whole story? We really did, Uncle," though she loved the man more than anyone else in the world... she couldn't tell him.

"Hoooh, to think I'd live to listen to my little Xin'er lie to me," the man chuckled faintly as Duo Xin felt blood rush to her cheeks out of shame. "I was there, little one."

"H-huh?"

"Right behind you," he added. "Watching the very same fight you did."

"!!!!!!"

"What? Did you think I'd let you go in there alone?" he asked. "I promised your mom I'd protect you. I'd sooner turn my bones to dust than fail that promise."

"--y-your scar... how is it?! So, so that's what Master meant. You were in the chamber."

"I'm fine, Xin'er," he said, grabbing her trembling hand and holding it gently as his bushy eyebrows curled up into a smile. "I worried less about dying and more about you telling them anything."

"I... I don't know..." she mumbled. "That Senior--"

"--is beyond either of our grasps," her uncle said, his grip tightening. "Listen to me carefully, Xin'er. Men like him--and his Disciples--are harbingers of chaos. They come and uproot the world in their wake, leaving it decimated as they disappear. Unless one's karmic fate is deeply interwoven with theirs, the only outcome for you is a life of pain and suffering as you endure the karmic burden of unending, dying souls."

Duo Xin was perhaps more shocked than when she watched Senior fight; she knew her uncle to be so fearless that he'd stand up boldly to everyone in the world, not an ounce of fear. He earned it--after all, once, he was an Emperor, having reached the ends that nobody else in the sect did.

"... he just seemed so nice," she said. "You weren't there. No, you were. But you weren't there. He... didn't treat us differently. He was capable of so much, yet treated us as though we were his peers."

"... I did not say anything of the man's character, Xin'er," her uncle said. "And I was there. Believe me--there is nobody more shocked than me that he was capable of that. I was certain that, beyond a few peculiarities, he was a substandard martial artist trying to do far too much. But he is by Dao Ordained, Xin'er; when I watched him fight... I sensed it."

"Sensed what?"

"It," he reiterated. "Something I only ever felt when I faced the Court's Primer--ability to bend the world to one's will. The reason those of the Heavenly Court can do it is because they are an extension of Dao, but he can do it too. So, either he's a member of the Court, or..."

"... or what?"

"... nothing. Keep silent. About everything. Our little sect cannot withstand the nature of someone like him. No... perhaps this entire little realm of ours cannot. Only time will tell, I suppose."