PtM Book 14 - Chapter 39: Accomplice

5/5 this week!

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In the end, all the scouting Cha Ming had risked his life for was for naught. Huxian was not yet in position, and Cha Ming had no way to infiltrate the Collegium in the short term. While in theory they had all the time in the world and could delay, Locke and Trevonay’s presence complicated things.

While in theory their activities could draw attention and give Cha Ming and Huxian an opening, it was much more likely that gold rankers would swarm into the city via the same teleportation network. The timing was just too awful.

Cha Ming wasn’t completely sure about the identity of Locke and Trevonay’s companions, but he didn’t dare probe. He was a pigeon, and they could easily smack him to death without effort. Therefore, his running assumption was that every single person in the group of thirty was at least an initial-gold-ranked slayer, which meant that they had, at minimum, a devilish endowment and would be much stronger than a normal ranker.

He only stuck around in pigeon form long enough to determine their destination before hopping off, transforming, and hailing a taxi.

They’re not even trying to hide it, Cha Ming thought as he walked over to the southern cathedral. But why would they do that? Why would they just waltz over there like tourists when they’re wanted criminals?

The taxi dropped him off not far away from the Southflame Cathedral. The location wasn’t far from the alchemical markets where Iridescent Charity and Iridescent Virtue were still shopping. The Church was a tall skyscraper with glass windows covered in gold religious text and depictions of Jezeriah, her angels, and the gods and goddesses in her pantheon. There were twelve of these lesser gods in total.

Cha Ming was familiar with Mendin churches, since he’d attended a few services in Mendin cities to see what they were all about. Definitely not to spy on their ranker cores. Like the other churches he’d seen, this one followed the same vertical style where, despite having over thirty floors overlooking a single full-height atrium, a formation allowed everyone to clearly see the proceedings at the altar as though they were on the first floor.

There was an oddity about this church, though. Originally, Cha Ming didn’t see it, but after fixing his gaze on it for over thirty seconds, he noticed karma twisting around it in strange ways. Thanks to the Crown of the Starry Sky, he could barely make out a churning maelstrom of national destiny that converged on the building.

The scene reminded Cha Ming of his dream of the golden world. His intuition told him that these things were related but not. There was something inside that church that distorted causality and affected good fortune on a massive scale.

Everyone in the area would find their actions blessed and their luck quite good. The sick would find themselves recovering against the odds. But the question remained: What was the cost? Who was suffering to make all this good fortune happen?

Cha Ming didn’t have to wait long for Locke, Trevonay, and their attendants to arrive. They walked toward the church imperiously and released their gold-ranked auras in unison. Everyone who hadn’t achieved silver rank was sent tumbling to the ground.

Cha Ming caught a few frightened individuals and used his domain to fashion impromptu shields that protected civilians from the glass falling from thousands of broken windows. Fortunately, the city’s police force seemed prepared for this, as hundreds of silver rankers popped out of the woodwork and cast shielding spells to protect those Cha Ming couldn’t.

“Cardinal Shenedrik, why don’t you and your friends come out and greet us?” Locke shouted. He and his companions revealed their ochre wings without fear. Confrontation was inevitable. And Cha Ming, who was just here to take a look, couldn’t help but grow cold. If he got caught up in a battle of this magnitude, how would he survive?

The church’s large doors opened, and a group of thirty or so gold rankers appeared. At their head was a man in red hempen robes, the same cardinal who Cha Ming had interacted with in Titanvale. “To think that you had the courage to come for us after all the fuss you caused with the Pool of Heavenly Healing,” the cardinal said. “Did you think we wouldn’t make any preparations?”

“Regardless of what preparations you made, we will kill you and take the Holy Provenance Plate,” Locke said. “It is a plague on everyone outside the Holy Governance Alliance and a parasite on this world. Now that you’ve activated it for your ceremony, it cannot be moved, so we naturally won’t let this opportunity slip us by.”

“With just you?” Cardinal Shenedrik said, looking them over coldly.

“I don’t see how this confrontation isn’t to our advantage,” Locke said. “Or will you be drawing from the group of newly inducted saints?” That was when the doors to the church opened again, revealing over a hundred silver rankers glowing with gold-jade wings. Like the cardinal and his gold rankers, all of them possessed the saint class. Even so, Cha Ming knew how strong these two gentlemen could be, and even a thousand silver rankers wouldn’t be enough.

It was therefore only natural that dozens more gold-ranked presences approached. “Well, there goes Jezeriah’s honor,” Trevonay said. “I was hoping for a fair fight, but as always, we never get one.”

“Shut up, Trevonay,” Locke said. “It’s obviously a trap. Retreat!”

“Like we’ll let you!” Cardinal Shenedrik sneered.

Power pulsed from twelve separate locations several blocks away. Cha Ming recognized the energy composition as a wizard’s spell. To require twelve high-level wizards to cast, this spell must be impressive, he thought.

A golden net fell down from above the city as Locke and Trevonay’s group, realizing their predicament, tried to escape before the net landed. Even so, they couldn’t break through. They were trapped in the city’s airspace.

“We’ve been nice and behaved, but don’t think I’ll hesitate to attack these civilians if you try to keep us here!” Locke shouted.

He slammed his staff down, and a runic circle appeared. Twelve of his companions joined him to form a circle of thirteen. A fiery spell matrix began to take shape.

“First group, defend the city!” Shenedrik shouted. “Second group, attack!”

Now there were over a hundred gold rankers taking part in the battle, and the devilish cultivators had all activated limit-breaking techniques. The exchange was blinding, and Cha Ming could barely keep up. Locke and Trevonay were caught in a trap, but he didn’t think the situation was that simple. There was still the artifact they’d mentioned, and it couldn’t be moved. Or could it?

Limit-break skills don’t last very long, Cha Ming thought further. On the surface, it looks like they’re trying to escape in a short timeframe. Whatever ceremony Cardinal Shenedrik was talking about will likely be over well after their limit break ends. Therefore, they’ll have no reason to double back and check on it. The limit break is likely all the time they need to steal this Holy Provenance Plate.

Cha Ming’s theory was all but confirmed when the maelstrom of national destiny around the cathedral grew erratic and frantic. He decided to enter the church and see what was going on. Under disguise, of course. He changed his appearance and walked into the empty square surrounding the church building. So many of the silver rankers were warding the city from the aftershocks of the battle that only a few remained to guard the square itself.

“This is a restricted area!” a silver ranker shouted, but Cha Ming ignored him and teleported past him. He picked up the pace and headed toward the door.

Before he could open it, the door slammed open, shoving him backward. Two cloaked figures darted out, and a few peak-silver rankers and a few half-step gold rankers followed. Neither group paid Cha Ming any attention.

“They destroyed the plate!” one shouted.

“After them!” another said.

Half of the silver rankers present mobilized in an instant. A few sought to hold him in place, because as a Daoist just lurking around the church, he was quite suspicious, but Cha Ming teleported past them thanks to his high spatial affinity.

The battle above the city hadn’t stopped, so the gold rankers likely weren’t aware of the situation, but that wouldn’t last much longer.

Regardless, if he didn’t step up, those useless silver rankers would never catch the two criminals. Cha Ming didn’t feel particularly strongly about church justice or property, but if those two were working with Locke and Trevonay, they should probably be stopped.

Cha Ming therefore joined the pursuit, and the silver rankers, seeing that he wasn’t attacking them, didn’t try to stop him.

The two criminals were difficult to close in on, since one of them wielded an absurdly powerful silver longsword. They sent blade after blade of sword qi at them to stop them from closing into melee range, but try as they might, the rankers could break through their defenses.

Cha Ming, being stronger than the rankers, decided to give it a shot. He dodged and deflected the many sword qi blades using a combination of swift movements and his domain. He closed half the distance between them before their speed drastically increased.

They’re fast! Cha Ming thought. He had no choice but to break his limit to keep up. Of course, speeding through a city would damage their surroundings to some extent. Even though it wasn’t enough to kill anyone, it was possible to seriously injure civilians with shattered glass.

The best way, he decided, was to catch them. If he could contain them long enough for the gold rankers to jump in, the battle was won.

Mendin streets were quite congested with traffic. This provided great cover for criminals because it restricted which sort of attacks could be unleashed against them. Were they to break out into open air and try to fly out, they would leave themselves open to heavy fire.

This naturally meant that intersections were the most fearful places to run into, and it happened to be there that they ran into a whole crowd of rankers. There were police officers and members of the city’s military and even civilians with combat classes had joined in.

Gotcha, Cha Ming thought, only to be surprised once again. The two criminals suddenly vanished, and he could not trace them via karma. He could sense spatial ripples, since they had clearly teleported, despite the large number of rankers surrounding them.

It was risky, but Cha Ming opted to continue chasing them. He drew on Huxian’s qi and pierced the unstable void. Having so many cultivators in one place made teleportation risky, and Cha Ming suffered many lacerations during his brief stint in void space.

He appeared beside the two fleeing individuals, and they were clearly surprised when he appeared beside them, staff in hand. Against others, he might hold back, but against Locke and Trevonay’s allies? Not a chance.

One of them fought with their fists, and as such, they were careful not to make direct contact with his staff as they pelted him with a rain of lightning-fast jabs. Whoever they were, they were perfectly coordinated with the sword wielder. It was as though they’d both practiced for centuries.

What surprised Cha Ming most was the opponent’s sword, as it could directly resist a collision with his staff. Most weapons of the same grade would shatter after a few exchanges, making this sword either a middle- or late-law-stitching-grade weapon. This was surprising because the opponent did not match the weapon. Neither of them were weak, but they weren’t strong enough to possess such an expensive item. It wasn’t uncommon for weaker cultivators to be killed for their treasures.

The Clear Sky Staff was furious about not being able to simply destroy its opponent’s weapon. It was a soul-bound treasure, so it should be able to chip or eat anything. There was a hierarchy among weapons, so the staff was determined to assert its dominance.

Unfortunately, the weapon’s unexpected hardness and the lightning-fast opponent put Cha Ming on the defensive. To make matters worse, every strike seemed to pile on a sort of debuff that slowed him down. This was in addition to his opponent’s fearsome strength, which penetrated his battle robes and severely damaged his vitality.

Cha Ming had no choice but to use his trump card and split himself into eight incarnations, leaving one in the Clear Sky World in case of emergency. Unlike what he expected, his opponents weren’t caught off guard in the slightest. Eight flame-covered swords appeared in the right positions the moment his incarnations appeared and pierced toward them.

He had no time to think about how his opponent could know him so well. Few people knew about his incarnation-spitting ability. These eight swords must be weaker than the previous ones,he thought. Much weaker. He therefore had all eight incarnations channel destruction qi and lash out with weaker versions of the Clear Sky Staff.

He must have guessed correctly, because his opponent cursed and recalled their swords at the last moment. They pierced through slits in space and appeared beside them in a defensive formation. Qi of all five elements accumulated into five large balls of raw power in front of his Daoist opponent.

Cha Ming was less surprised by the five-element qi and more by the quantity of it; though his opponent wore some sort of veil that hid their cultivation, he estimated they weren’t much stronger than he was, if at all, else the battle wouldn’t have lasted so long.

Cha Ming had experience with high-energy attacks. His Descent of the Five Sovereigns was one of them. Their strength was obvious ,but their weakness all the more obvious. Such an attack was telegraphed and easy to avoid.

Unless… It was then that he remembered his other opponent’s slowing effects that had been accumulating all this time.

I need to run! He quickly made to evade, but his second opponent was already acting and had split up into incarnations as well. No, not incarnations…These incarnations were just as strong as the original! They began to strike each of Cha Ming’s incarnations with a sudden assault that he couldn’t block. All eight of Cha Ming’s clones were pushed back toward where the five-element attack was heading.

Cha Ming flooded destruction qi through his qi pathways and activated his destruction domain. This reduced the potency of the slowing effect. Unfortunately, the attack seemed to have an effect not unlike his own Runebound Strike. The energy inside all eight of his incarnations suddenly detonated, freezing him like a block of ice.

Time traps were difficult to escape, but not impossible. Space was a good counter to time, because it could bridge distance.

He started by merging his eight incarnations. His movements had slowed to a crawl, so he activated his Golden Boots of the Clockwork Dragon. He used all three charges without hesitation, stacking the time acceleration into a single second. It was wasteful, but barely enough to nullify the ability locking him down, allowing him to jump backward and avoid the five colliding energy spheres.

An explosion ensued, and the chaotic energies obscured his senses. He braced himself for the enemy’s sword to piece through… only to realize that it wasn’t coming. The energy dissipated, and his opponents were gone.

More silver and gold rankers had already appeared at the scene. They moved in to question him, but Cha Ming was too quick. He tracked down the enemy’s spatial fluctuations and teleported once again. This time, they were expecting him.

They attacked him directly. Cha Ming responded by shooting out both his Wrappings of Runic Binding to tangle independently. As predicted, they weren’t very strong despite the powerful artifacts they were using and couldn’t free themselves right away.

The faster of the two, which Cha Ming suspected was a demigod aligned with time of all things, given their fighting style, broke free first. They attacked Cha Ming with a familiar barrage of fist strikes. Cha Ming did not tangle with them directly but split off an incarnation to distract them while he closed in on the one that was still tangled up in his Wrappings of Runic Binding.

Simple and lethal was best. He poured as much destruction qi as he could muster into his most basic staff technique he knew, Crushing Chaos. Its downward arc crushed the air and even shattered space itself.

For a moment, he thought his opponent’s death was inevitable. That was before his second opponent activated a dominion ability, greatly slowing him down. Cha Ming responded by channeling all three of his destruction runes and his destruction domain to break down their ability as much as possible. Unexpectedly, his second opponent was a demon! And they were burning their blood essence!

With such strong interference, his Daoist opponent broke free. Unfortunately for them, the Wrappings of Runic Binding had been pouring energy into them unhindered, layering instances of Runebound Strike on them.

His opponent stiffened. Cha Ming saw the opponent and attacked. His staff arced again, this time tearing through his opponent’s dominion once again.

And then, he saw them. Two eyes, too familiar. He saw them through the gaps in her cloak, and it was then that he realized who these two were, and why they knew him so well.

Cha Ming tried to pull back his attack, but it had too much momentum and far too much energy.

His muscles bulged and his ligaments tore. Fortunately, his target had one more card to play: a familiar Grandmist domain. Being a tier higher than a destruction domain, it easily broke it apart. His opponent’s time dominion reasserted itself, and Cha Ming’s staff sank into a gray blob and froze.

The disguise faded, revealing a familiar figure, who averted her gaze. “Well?” she said softly. “What are you going to do? Kill me?”

A thousand questions hit Cha Ming all at once. He was confused. Why were they here? Why were they colluding with Locke and Trevonay?

There were other questions, of course, all without answers, but they froze him in place. It was one thing to wonder what would happen in such a situation, but another thing entirely to face it personally.

It was only when a flicker of gold appeared in the distance that Cha Ming came to his senses. More rankers were closing in, and in a case like this, there was only one decision he could make.

“Let’s go,” he simply said. “That guy’s fast. I recognize him. We can’t stick around.

“He’s right,” Xiao Bai said. “Let’s go.”

Yu Wen shot Cha Ming a complicated look, but there was no time to say anything. They flew off together, this time as fellow fugitives.

***

Within seconds, two fugitives had now become three. Cha Ming quickly accepted the fact that he was now Yu Wen’s accomplice and might get blacklisted by the Church of Jezeriah, made his peace with it, then moved on from there.

“The one pursuing is called Petros Sullivan, Archer of Aeons,” Cha Ming explained. “He’s a hunter. A good one. I worked with him briefly in the rifts of Verdane, so if we fight, he’ll probably recognize me in an instant.”

Yu Wen frowned. “Archers are annoying. How strong are his arrows?”

“Strong enough to kill gold-ranked wizards in one hit,” Cha Ming said. In other words, he might just be able to do the same to them.

The first thing they needed to do was lose their pursuers. Once they did that, they could hide and disguise themselves. The real question was whether they’d be able to hide from someone like Petros; he was a great tracker, and as far he knew, a good man, which meant that they weren’t going to kill him, no matter what.

Normally, as Daoists, they would have some advantages while escaping, but unfortunately, these advantages were easily negated in a city. Any teleportation activities would be tracked, so while they could escape, they would eventually be found.

That was only the first problem with teleporting. Tracking aside, the battle above the city had definitely broken up the barrier between their realm and void space. An inordinate amount of void turbulence, debris, and spatial glass meant that teleporting anything more than a short hope could be lethal.

As such, Petros’s arrows continued unabated. Even if each one took a few seconds to charge, they were deadly and quite difficult to avoid.

“So why are you here anyway?” Yu Wen asked.

“I was infiltrating the Collegium to help Huxian set up a teleportation formation,” Cha Ming said. “On my way out, I saw Locke, Trevonay, what looked like a small army of gold-ranked slayers taking a bus like normal tourists, doing nothing to hide themselves. As much as I hate the two of them, I take it they were expecting the ambush and have a way out?”

“Probably,” Yu Wen said with a shrug. “We have an agreement to minimize civilian casualties. Aside from that, they can do as they please.”

An arrow grazed Cha Ming’s ear, and he looked back and scowled. Petros was taking advantage of their positioning to attack them with impunity. Cha Ming looked at the ground and eyed the bronze rankers there guiltily. “He’s a good guy. He won’t fire into a full crowd.”

Yu Wen tossed Cha Ming a mask. “Catch.” The mask was a mid-grade-law-stitching artifact, and the moment he donned it, the karma thread linking him and Petros faded away.

They then flew back down toward those same bronze and silver rankers on the ground, which exposed them to their attacks but simultaneously shut down Petros’s main offensive methods.

It was all quite surreal to Cha Ming, really. Minutes earlier, he’d been chasing down a wanted criminal, and now, he was using a city’s residents as human shields. It was something he’d never normally consider. If it were anyone else, he wouldn’t have risked it, but with Petros, he was reasonably confident.

So they flew, dodging fire and lightning and swords from those beneath them. The occasional golden arrow found an opening in the crowd, but they were able to evade those with ease.

Even so, Cha Ming couldn’t expose his abilities. The other rankers might not be able to recognize his destructive black staff or the clones he used, but Petros would.

“We need to cover a lot of ground, and fast,” Cha Ming said. “Either that or hide. I have two options, the first one being that we try hiding in the Clear Sky World and hope they don’t find us.”

Xiao Bai shot that idea down straight away. “Can’t. The strong ones here will sense us and will try forcing their way in.”

“It’s my soul-bound treasure, so they won’t be able to,” Cha Ming countered.

“No, she’s right,” Yu Wen agreed. “So that means they’ll break it. What do you think will happen when a few angry middle-gold rankers start hammering away at an independent space linked to your body and soul?”

“Fine,” Cha Ming admitted. “It’s a terrible idea. I only have one other suggestion, but I need to run it past Huxian.”

It was a short conversation. Cha Ming told Huxian his idea, and Huxian scolded him and told him he was suicidal. Unfortunately, they were out of options, so they had to try. “I need to perform a long-distance teleportation jump, then hide us,” Cha Ming said. “I’ll hide you two in the Clear Sky World and draw on my bond with Huxian to protect me from the void turbulence.”

“There’s too many gold rankers fighting around here,” Xiao Bai said. “That’s stupid.”

“I’ll take it slow and travel through the void,” Cha Ming said.

“Even then,” Xiao Bai said. Unfortunately, she didn’t have any better ideas.

The journey through the void, short as it was, would be extremely dangerous, so personal protection was the top priority. Medicine was almost useless because by the time you took it, you were already dead.

They had very little time, but Yu Wen was surprisingly well stocked with emergency equipment. She had an early-law-stitching defensive talisman, an initial-gold-ranked healing pill that could regenerate limbs affected by law scars, and a pendant that would break if the wearer was subjected to a lethal blow.

Ironically, Cha Ming didn’t have any talismans that could affect him since his body was far too strong for them. His battle robes, enhanced with Claddings of Light and his Runebound Defense technique, would only offer him so much protection.

“We can find another way,” Yu Wen said as they dodged yet another arrow and rounded another corner filled with angry rankers. A gold ranker had split off from the main group fighting above the city and was approaching them in the distance.

“There’s no time,” Cha Ming said. He summoned a portal to the Clear Sky World and pushed them both in, after which he summoned the Clear Sky Staff and flew up above the crowd. This would give Petros a clear shot, but he wasn’t about to open a void rift in the middle of a crowd of civilians.

The Clear Sky Staff grew and lengthened, and Cha Ming heaved with all his might, creating a pristine white slash in the sky with Splitting Heaven and Earth.

The void was a broken, chaotic mess, and so it took him time to pry open the slit in space. To do so, he needed to stay in one space, and that was all the opening Petros needed. An arrow blasted Cha Ming in the shoulder. He looked back at Petros and purposefully revealed his face before he could launch a second attack, then hopped into the rift.

His gambit paid off, because the second arrow, though striking him, was significantly weaker. He wasn’t sure what the fallout would be, but whatever it was, he would accept it.

Wounded and alone, Cha Ming jumped into the turbulent void. The usually calm and peaceful realm between material planes was an unrestrained hurricane.

Cha Ming drew on his link to Huxian and morphed into his half-demon appearance. A translucent, diamond-like barrier covered his skin, forming an intimate but thin layer of protection.

He immediately activated the talisman and consumed the pill, and for good measure, he broke his limit a second time. He couldn’t worry about something like soul damage at a time like this. And besides, he only needed to travel thirty seconds or so in this place.

Unfortunately, the void was now a harrowing maze of solidified void the size of skyscrapers, and anyone foolish enough to collide with them would find themselves ground to mincemeat. Already, Cha Ming could feel the defensive talisman’s ability degrading.

He didn’t need to reach any specific location; anywhere in the city was fine. He shot toward the least turbulent area and began to navigate the void using his keen eyesight, and of all things, his hearing. There was a sound in this place, a rumble that warned void-farers of impending danger.

Cha Ming’s Crown of the Starry Sky showed its true worth in this situation. It was practically impossible to predict how the void would break and tear, but with it, he was able to negate many blows that should have been lethal and avoid some entirely.

The talisman lasted ten seconds, not enough time. Cha Ming had no choice but to summon the small void ship he’d gotten from Huxian, which he used to push through the unsteadiness in the void space and ride it like a current.

Such a vessel was ultimately unsuited to this environment, and the ship’s large size meant that, under the constant battering and cutting of the void, it began to break apart and crack. Its mast snapped in half, and a large blade of space cut through a third of the ship as though it were tofu, opening it up once more to the rugged reality of void space.

Cha Ming’s body was immediately exposed to the void. Even with Huxian’s protection, he was not built for the void, and space had been destabilized by over a hundred gold rankers fighting in the city adjacent to him. And as much as he wished to escape this city, there was no way he could both survive the turbulence here and break through the wall enclosing them.

Ten more seconds! Cha Ming thought. Cha Ming’s cultivation method was not adapted to absorbing primal chaos energy, so he had no way to replenish his energy in here. Fortunately, there was a workaround. Out in void space, he could absorb nothing, but in the Clear Sky World, he could absorb energy using his incarnation, an energy-gathering formation, and high-grade inkwell jades.

Yu Wen also did her all to assist him. She sat behind him with palms on her back and circulated her energy alongside him, just as she had to help him heal in the Clear Sky World. She could not directly pour energy into his body, but she could add a second heart to their cycle, enhancing his natural ability.

Cha Ming couldn’t even make up for ten percent of what he lost this way, but he only needed one or two seconds longer.

Twenty-two seconds after he entered the void, a massive pane of void glass cut into him. The pendant he was wearing shattered.

Twenty-five seconds after he entered the void, a large junk of spatial glass he couldn’t avoid headed his way.

A half second was all it took for Cha Ming to pry apart the void with his bare, clawed hands and crawl through a narrow rift in space. He appeared in a deserted alley and immediately transformed into a beggar, then huddled close to a garbage bag and settled his aura.

Not only did he pull most of his energy out of this incarnation, he even took away any semblance of a core, meridians, or qi pathways. The incarnation was helpless—it could be killed with a single smack. Anyone could slay this incarnation, which was why it was a good disguise. A cultivator, they would doubt, but someone without a shred of cultivation, such a lowly figure, they would never give a second glance.

It was done. They had escaped. No karma led their way.

All they had to do now was recover and wait for the storm to pass.