An lets out an involuntary shiver as she takes a quick glance at the demonic booklet. Not all of her fear comes purely from looking at the thing’s wretched qi however, more than a little is due to the person holding it. With how lackadaisical the woman usually is An had forgotten how observant a Nascent Soul cultivator can be when they put their mind to it. Not that she knows how observant that would be but given the sheer increase in ability between stages, let alone realms, she imagines it is beyond anything she can comprehend.
How the woman caught on to her unique ability she truly cannot understand. She’s gone over her actions time and time again and couldn’t find out in the slightest where she slipped up. Even she herself hadn’t realized the truth until recently, shortly after gaining her legacy. The shadow of a spiritual sense. That’s what she has possessed all her life. The ability not to sense qi itself but to detect what lies within it. What it leaves behind. Memories of qi. The more she cultivates the clearer it has been getting but at her current level all she can detect is faint echoes.
Unless the qi is specifically directed at her that is. Looking back she believes that to be the reason she could hear the conversation between Zhi and Song Suwan so clearly within the hidden realm despite being covered in a barrier that kept out all outside distraction. The barrier was specifically meant for her. She feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand up at the thought. Whenever she so much as glances at it the feeling is the same. Despite the demonic qi being on an inanimate object it is almost as if it were purposefully attacking her each time she takes a peek, wearing her defenses down little by little. The most terrifying part is that were she unaware of it, it might even have worked. Even now she worries she may be more affected than she believes.
All that said she realizes it makes her the best, and potentially only, person suited to finding further traces of the insidious qi. Inhaling deeply she does her best to parse through what little qi lingers in the air. The current area should make it easier than normal, few cultivators would wander through such a grimy place. Yet there lingers far more than she’d have thought possible. She wonders why. Is her ability stronger than she’d imagined? For that matter, how long do signs of qi remain after their passing? Could these be traces that built up over decades if not centuries? Then if so, how is she expected to find the correct one among all the others?
The matter isn’t helped by the sheer power of the one following right behind her, the grandmaster’s sheer presence blotting out all other qi like candles to the sun. Nevertheless she doesn’t dare propose to continue on her own. Even disregarding the Grand Master’s earlier words and the disturbing feeling of the booklet she brings out whenever An requires another look, something about this place feels off to her. Like the moment she'll cross a corner out of sight she’ll vanish, never to be seen again. Rationally she knows such a thing is impossible, yet when did qi ever restrain itself to rationality?
Her nose twitches when she finally detects something similar again. Following it like a hound chasing a scent she arrives in a desolate alley, naught but trash and mold to be seen. By all but her that is.
Shades that aren’t there pass through the alley, two blurry shapes echoing what once was being what she focuses on in particular. One stands a full three heads taller than the other, its form obscured beneath a black hood and robe, its attachment to the other made clear only through the extended limb pulling the other along. An focuses on them, the other shades turning more and more translucent as she does. The second form is small, barely her size or perhaps even smaller. Its head hangs down, looking at the floor as it trails behind the taller one. Trying to focus harder to see if she can catch any details she finds herself limited by her inability to externalize qi. Frustration bubbles under the surface as she lets the images dissipate. Taking slow, methodical breaths she does her best to replenish the qi she focused into her senses while she turns to report to her Grand Master.
-----
Suwan squints at the spot An stopped in front of. This is the fourth time this has happened today and she highly doubts the taciturn girl would pull such a strange prank. Especially not on her. Even so she can’t sense anything at all when she looks at it. Given that An likely requires a clear view to do whatever it is she does Suwan doesn’t think it’d be a good idea to fully unleash her spiritual sense to observe it that way either. She’s much more likely to simply blow away or disintegrate whatever the kid needs than to actually get any results. Pushing down a sigh she crosses her arms. Having gotten to heights normally only reached after centuries of work in less than two decades hasn’t left her an awful lot of time to practice her control.
“Grand master, someone small was led away by someone in a hood.”
“So they’re targeting short people.” Suwan replies with a contemplative nod before snapping her fingers. “Plan Mu is a go.”
Somehow An’s expressionless eyes seem to hold a hint of disappointment. Suwan quickly convinces herself it’s just her imagination and gestures for the girl to continue on, a yawn escaping her as she wonders whether the others are having any more luck.
-----
“Roite dis way miss!” A ratty looking man says while rubbing his hands and occasionally looking over his shoulder to see if the one he’s escorting is still following. He spins around so fast one would think it’d give him whiplash once Zhi fixes him with a glare. She squints as she looks around. Her fists clenching and unclenching, her stance radiating violence. A drop of sweat runs down the man’s brow and there could be no question as to why. After all, not even an hour before he’s seen his entire group be beaten to a pulp by just one person and not just that, he has that very same one breathing down his neck.
“Awfully long path, innit? Almos’ a fookin’ circle even. Givin’ y’r buds time to git out, weasel?” Zhi guesses, her voice so deadpan it seems more like she is shopping for groceries than being about to walk into the main headquarters of an entire gang. One much, much larger than the small group the ratty man in front of her belonged to. She kicks him in the shin to hurry him along, the man suddenly finding it in himself to move a lot faster. Albeit with a bit of limp.
“Lu Shu! Ya oughta know better than ta come saunterin’ in here ya scraggly fook.”
The man gulps and takes a few steps back, almost hiding behind Zhi while he replies. “Mercy, lord. Dis lowly one ‘ad no choice!”
“Dere’s always a choice, rat. Ya chose wrong.”
Zhi lets out a loud sigh at the sight of the speaker coming into view flanked by several of his goons. By the sound of creaking wood she can tell there are several more on the roofs of the ramshackle houses surrounding them and if she strains her ears she can just barely hear gravel churning. She assumes it’s even more people moving to encircle them. She crosses her arms and taps her foot, highly unamused at the interruption and even more so when the man takes it as an invitation to continue his rant.
“Now, dis can go two ways, da easy one or da har-”
“Fook dis, I ain’t listening ta y’r bull.”
“ ‘scuse me?”
“Yeah nah, fook you. I ain’t in de mood for talking.”
Cracking her fists she spits on the floor and rushes straight towards the leader. She swings her arm back to wind up a punch and waits just long enough for his instincts to kick in and his arms to raise before she knees him in the gut. The man crumples like a wet biscuit. The goons closest to him freeze and Zhi does not let the opportunity go by. She finishes her punch by socking the goon closest to her in the face so hard teeth go flying and the man’s head goes through the wall next to him. Keeping her arms close to her head she spins on the balls of her feet and downs the next one with a straight right.
“Aite, now we ken talk.” She calmly adds while wiping her shoe on their groaning leader’s shirt like he’s a doormat. Surprisingly enough that doesn’t make the rest of the gang more inclined to do so. Lu Shu quickly hides behind her when the dam breaks and everyone rushes her at once. Zhi charges and hits the first to arrive with a left. Ducking beneath the next blow she nails another with an uppercut. Now fully surrounded there’s not enough room for her to dodge all of them. Instead she decides to shoulder charge to the other side, bowling her way through and leaving a trembling Lu Shu cut off on the wrong side of the angry mob.
A painful twinge on her back tells her she took a heavy hit on the way through, patting it her hand comes back red. She scans the crowd and fixes one of the men holding a bloodied scimitar with a glare, his satisfied smirk suddenly a lot more strained when she rushes back in to get revenge.
Lu Shu shakes like a leaf watching the largest gang in the city be dismantled by a single woman. Thuds, screams and groans ring out for the next few minutes as one by one each and every last of them gets laid out. He cautiously pokes his head out of the crate he was hiding in once the sounds stop. Nobody other than Zhi is still upright, the woman wiping blood away from a split lip and spitting out more as she takes stock of her injuries.
She’s had worse, she concludes after a hasty check. After facing down an entire group of armed men it could’ve been much, much worse. Clenching and unclenching her fists she finds herself disgusted with the bloodied digits. Just by chance, a blessing from the heavens and a bit of training she’s gotten strong enough to dominate others so. She remembers the fearful look in the men’s eyes right before she struck the blows that broke bone or knocked unconscious. What she finds even worse is how intoxicated she was by her own powers, how she didn’t even consider trying to de-escalate and instead went straight to violence.
And why? For the audacity of daring to stand in her way? It leaves a sour taste in her mouth. Eager to leave it all behind her she steps away from the scene of the crime and crosses the corner to get the alley out of her sight. She’s just about to call her guide over when she spots one more person standing upright. A robed man, his features obscured by his hood. Reaching into his sleeve the man pulls out an object on a thin chain. Instantly putting her guard back up Zhi’s eyes follow the chain as it comes out until the end comes into sight revealing a simple penda-
-----
With a deep inhale Suwan raises the chopsticks to her mouth and savors the smell of her noodles. She opens her mouth and brings her food to it, just about to take a bite when the door slams open and a panicking Mu rushes through it.
"Master! Zhi's been kidnapped."
"Huh." Suwan blinks. "Hadn't been expecting that."
Bet she isn't surprised about the kidnapping, just about who got snatched.
Yup!