Growing Pains 326 Book 2 Chapter 20

I didn’t give any warning or reason for my anger and killing intent to explode. I registered that a few members of the team were forced to their knees, but no one was hurt. Activating [Lightning’s Rush] and infusing it with as much Qi as I was able, I seemed to teleport from the cavern we were in.

I reached the cave entrance in a matter of seconds. Once free of those constraints, I flung myself into the sky, commanding the wind to part the air in front of me while buttressing my speed with tailwinds. 

I had never flown so fast, but I had never been so angry. Or scared. Even when I had been forced to battle that Nascent Soul Realm Cultivator that was attacking Xiwang, I wasn’t as afraid as I was now.

Why was Ja Fiat hunting my brother and sister? And I had examined Storm’s memories thoroughly enough to agree with her. Ja Fiat’s actions were those of a hunter. 

I arrived at my parent’s home and shop without issue. Unfortunately, my arrival was not disguised. “Sister! Pull in your aura. You will hurt younger brother and sister.”

I had barely reached Nascent Soul Realm, so there was still a learning curve to endure to know how to adjust my strength intuitively. I had to waste a few seconds fighting my anger in order to withdraw my killing intent. And even then, I wasn’t able to remove it completely. It simmered barely under my control, waiting to be unleashed.

I landed in a spot Storm had suggested. It would allow me to see but make noticing me hard. 

“Where is she?” I asked. “I don’t see anyone.”

“There,” Storm replied, focusing my attention on the shadows from a building across the street.

I still didn’t see anyone, even with Storm pointing out the exact location. I began probing the shadows, scouring for any evidence of a person hiding there using my perception and my new connection with the land.

It didn’t matter how I searched, sight, sound, smell, perception, or land sense. Nothing was registering. Which could only mean that Ja Fiat was a Cultivator and a strong one. One able to hide her Cultivation from my senses and Clements. Or that she had access to a powerful artifact that allowed her to mask her presence.

Either explanation was problematic, and I would have to institute a better screening mechanism when I was hiring and recruiting individuals.  

“She’s leaving,” Storm informed me, “should I follow?”

“No,” I responded immediately, “you are too big. She would notice you. Have the fliers you control follow her. You and I will stay far enough back that she doesn’t notice us.” 

Ja Fiat left the shadows not long after leaving. Storm’s arrival to play with Geon and Syha must have given her pause, and if she had intended to kidnap or kill that day, she had thought better of it.

But it was too late for her to have a change of mind. I had seen behind the mask of efficiency she used to beguile me. That she hid the fact she was a Cultivator was serious, but that she also had access to artifacts and talismans that could fool Clement made her dangerous.

I considered for a moment that she might be part of that crew of Nascent Soul Realm Cultivators that had been involved in smuggling and engineering the evolution of the Magma Krakens. As I did, I tried to remember any discussions, meetings, or planning I might have made in her presence.

I was relieved that any talk about Kingdom building had been restricted to a small group, but was able to admit to myself that I wouldn’t have objected if she had been included in those meetings.

If she was a spy, it was only luck that had kept her from discovering what I was planning. If she wasn’t a spy, I would find out the truth of who she was and what her intentions were.  There had to be a reason she was willing to hunt my siblings. She knew that I would respond to any attempt to harm them. But she had to have some surety that she would be able to act and get away with it.

What made her so confident was another secret that I would expose.

Ja Fiat led us to a rather nondescript building. It was a family home located near the merchant section of town. The building itself had nothing that would make it stand out, but the arrays and formation flags that had been created to defend the home were out of proportion for anything a glorified secretary might need.

The defenses were robust enough that I could extend my perception past them. I didn’t know if Ja Fiat lived by herself or with a family, but I would soon find out. I sent out a call across the House Gestalt that I had formed. A series of pings that each member had been instructed meant that the House was endangered.

Every Cultivator that had joined that Gestalt began to move, using the threads of mental energy that connected us together to pinpoint my location. We hadn’t practiced this, but my desire for caution must have bled over across the Gestalt because every individual, without exception, moved silently, rendezvoused with Storm and me, and remained silent, waiting for orders.

“Well, that was unpleasant and unexpected,” Toi informed me.

She had offered to scout the house before we entered. Her reasoning was sound. The knowledge of what individual Spirit companions were capable of and the defenses to guard against them wouldn’t have been developed yet. She could enter the house and check for people and traps without setting off any alarms.

“What was?”

“She has a series of defenses that would have banished, trapped, or exorcised me if I didn’t have an astral anchor tying me to you and reality. The good thing is that these defenses aren’t targeted at Spirits. The bad, they are targeted at demonic entities. 

“And it is easy to figure out why. Those defenses are to hide what she is doing in here. She isn’t trying to keep demonic energies out, and she’s trying to keep those energies contained inside.

“She’s set up a sacrificial altar, and from the amount of blood that is coating the walls, it looks like she uses it frequently.”