Shizukana Gake

Heian Kingdom

The Great Plateau

Month of the Pangolin 4, 172 ,328 DE

With the Silver Princess flying low over the Merchant Quarter, I spread my awareness through the buildings and grounds below. The manor houses and compounds have only a fraction of the wards that clan compound do, but many of them are of a surprisingly high quality. Their protections extend into both the Eidos and the Pneuma. Merchants are more serious about protecting their money than the clans are about protecting their homes.

Wards aside, I have yet to find anything that might be the Beast lures, but then, I have no idea what to actually look for. I do not sense even a trace of Elemental Soul, but in three of the compounds that fill one block, I sense a few pieces of machinery that radiate Yuan Qi from various Power storage devices. It is almost impossible to find anything directly powered by Yuan Qi east of the Kami Kaze Mountains. Why do merchants have machines like that? Can Yuan Qi be used to drawn on an Elemental Power?

I cannot find anything other than the Yuan Qi machinery. Focusing more of my awareness into the three compounds with the machinery, I search through the three compounds. Underground passages connect the manor houses of all three. Out of the more than a hundred humans occupying the compounds, all but thirty-odd of them are Cultivators. The weakest Cultivators are already in the middle of the Foundation Establishment realm, and the strongest one has entered the Martial Warrior realm. The majority of them are in the Core Formation realm.

"What now?" Hoshi voice his question in a whiny voice.

"We wait for the next pulse. I might have found where the Beast lures are, but I can't tell what theyd are."

"Do we have time for that?"

I turn my head to stare at Hoshi. "If I'm right we have to deal with nearly a hundred Cultivators. If I'm wrong, we get pointlessly tied up with nearly a hundred Cultivators. Do you want me to move without being sure?"

Hoshi winces. "No. But how much time do we have? My family lives here."

"Brigette, circle around over the Merchant Quarter."

"Aye, Master." As she responds, Brigette takes the Silver Princess into a gentle turn.

*What about using Telepathy to probe their Minds?* Vorn's thoughts come through the still active Telepathy thread.

*I'm hesitant to use it. My awareness does not appear to have been noticed by anyone, but I still have an uneasy feeling.*

Vorn turns his head to look at me. *Why?*

*There is strange machinery that's powered by Yuan Qi down there. I don't know purpose it serves, but it bothers me. I'm a Great Beast. I'll trust my instincts. We just need to wait for the next pulse. When hunting, you don't want to spring too soon and spook the prey.*

Without asking more questions, Vorn turns back to the bridge window. While we wait, the seconds and minutes drag out like days.

The buildings in all three compounds, with the Yuan Qi machinery, were constructed in an architectural style more fitting for the Dunkle Sonne Empire than the Heian Kingdom. In the largest of the compounds, the Cultivators take an interest in the Silver Princess . One of the weaker Cultivators, apparently standing watch at a window, runs to the Martial Warrior, and the Martial Warrior follows him back to the window. After our airship leaves the line of sight for the window, the Martial Warrior moves to another window, where he can see us, once more.

As I focus my vision on the window, the Martial Warrior's face becomes magnified, as though I am looking at him with a telescope. He is a Gaijin, which is not commonly seen in Shizukana Gake. Out of the more than three-quarters of million humans in the city, there are probably less than five thousand Gaijin, but the majority of them have something to do with the city's merchants. I could try to read their Minds with Telepathy , but if they have nothing to the with the Beast lures, I would rather not get tied up with them.

Another pulse of Elemental Soul washes over us, and Vorn points toward the compound with the Martial Warrior. "It from down there!"

Moving the controls for the cannon, I spin the turret to target the building where the Martial Warrior is watching from. In the holographic image from the cannon's camera, his mouth falls open and his eyes look like they are trying to pop out of their sockets, giving his face a comical appearance.

Boom! BOOM!

The shell's explosion leaves a gaping hole in the side of the manor house. The window has disappeared along with the Martial Warrior, but I feel his Yuan Qi from deeper inside the manor house.

Boom! BOOM! Boom! BOOM! Boom! BOOM!

As fast as the cannon will cycle, I fire three more shells into the manor house. If the pieces of Yuan Qi machinery are the Beast lures, this will not shut them down. The machines are underground. My goal is to cause panic and confusion in the Manor House.

"There are close a hundred Cultivators in the compounds on the block and they're all connected. You coming or staying?"

"Do you think I'm gonna miss out on a battle? Let's go!" While pulling a broadsword and a battle-axe out of his storage device, Vorn leaves the bridge ahead of me.

"Take us over the compound I attacked!" While already leaving the bridge, I give Brigitte her orders.

By the time I reach the main hatch, Vorn has it open. With his axe's blade hooked on the hatch coaming, he leans out, while examining the compound. "The building you shelled is on fire, but it hasn't spread too far, yet. I'm jumping when we pass over it."

Less than twenty seconds later, Vorn unhooks his axe and leaps from the hatch. I wait for the Silver Princess to near the far side of the manor house before I jump. As I land on the roof, Vorn disappears over the north edge of it. Crossing the last few meters to the east edge, I drop off and grab the edge of the roof. Using my hold on the edge of the roof, I swing so that I hit a window feet first.

The glass in the window shatters as I hurtle into the room. From the bed and cloth-covered dressers, it appears to be a bedroom, but one that is not in use. The sounds of shouts and running feet reach my ears, but no one seems to have heard my entry over their own noise.

Letting my awareness spread around me, I sense the life force of over thirty human still inside the manor house. Yuan Qi flows through all but three of them. Seven Cultivators stand within less than ten meters of the room I am in, but the rest have retreated to the first floor. The scent of four or five burnt corpses drifts under the door with with the smoke from the fires.

Bang! Crack!

I sense Vorn move into the hall outside my room, and the Yuan Qi in the Cultivators surges.

"Who are you?!"

"Surrender or die!"

Bang! Crack!

As the broken door flies off the hinges under the force of my kick, most of the Cultivators look in my direction. Seizing on the Cultivators' distraction, Vorn attacks. The Core Formation in front of Vorn barely blocks his axe, and his kick hammers into the Cultivator's stomach. The Cultivator slams into another Cultivator behind him.

Drawing my Bowie knives in reverse grips, I spring at the nearest Cultivator, who is in the upper level of the Foundation Establishment realm. He has barely begun to turn as the Soul Steel blade half-severs his neck. Ignoring their dying comrade, two more Cultivators hack at me with their swords, but I duck behind the dying Cultivator. As the swords hack into the dying Cultivator's shoulder and neck, I charge past him getting inside the sword range of another Cultivator.

Vorn lunges after the Cultivator that he kicked. His sword stabs into the off-balance Cultivators stomach, and his battle-axe hacks at the man behind him. Vorn's speed is just barely the equal of the Core Formation Cultivators, but his strength makes him look like an adult fighting children. Even in a fully human form, the combination of his Beast Blood Cultivation and his current progress in the Body Forging Scripture have pushed his raw physical strength to the level of a peak Core Formation Cultivator. Once he completes the Body Forging Scripture, he will have more physical strength than I currently have, but his Beast Blood Cultivation has already reached the peak of its second realm.

Except for the one I am on top of, the Cultivators look torn between who to attack. Taking advantage of their indecision, I slash at the Cultivator with both knives. He manages to get the guard of his sword between one of my blades and his body. My other blade cuts though the studded leather armor over his stomach, like a hot knife though butter, and slices deep into his intestines. A shoulder strike sends him flying into another Cultivator, and I go for one that turned his back to me to attack Vorn.

While Cultivators scream in pain and anger, Vorn and I continue to cut a bloody path through them. It takes barely five seconds to finish of the rest.

After the last Cultivator falls, Vorn cocks his head to listen. *I hear them moving on a lower floor. A lot of them.*

*There are still twenty of them down there, but they're moving underground. They're getting closer to the Yuan Qi machines, and the Martial Warrior is with them.*

With Vorn close on my heels, I move silently down the stairs and deeper into the manor house. I have a rough idea of where the stair to the underground are, but the smoke rapidly filling the air makes it take longer to navigate the halls and rooms. When we reach where I expected the stairs to be, we find a blank stone wall.

*Are you lost?*

I shake my head. *There has to be a concealed door. Look for a release.*

While Vorn fiddle with gas light fixtures and shelving, I focus my awareness into the Eidos and examine the wall. The stone of the walls shows as an ephemeral presence; it is an idea with no Mind to give solidify its existence in the Eidos. Resembling a spell, a complex pattern covers a gap in the idea of a stone wall. Examining the numerous overlapping sigils in the pattern, I find what should be a trigger sequence and tap a dozen points on the stone wall.

A rectangular outline forms on the seemingly solid stone wall. With a sound of stone grinding on stone, a section of the wall swings back revealing a set of hinges on one side and a dark tunnel.

*This door is a Yuan Qi spell of sorts. The complexity of its construction is far beyond the capabilities of anyone I have ever heard of east of the Kami Kaze Mountains.*

Vorn glances from the open door to me. *Does that include Grandmaster Jones?*

I shrug. *This is more of a spell than anything else. That shitty old man doesn't use spells. Let's go.*