CC6 -ch 11-

Eleven

Ash was surprised in the end when thirty Knights and thirty Brides arrived.

One and all they were all part of the recruits brought in from Wahst and Ghast’s world.

It was a curious thing to Ash, as he wondered if perhaps those from the realm they were returning to would want to be there when it happened. To return home and be part of the group that managed it.

“They deferred to those who had never been to the realm before. They wanted to give them a chance to feel what a realm should feel like, rather than where they’ve always been.

“Also, those who were part of our realm, were part of the teams that broached into the modern realm. It’s only fair that they take a step back now.

“They all work hard to give everyone opportunities and experiences.

“The stronger the group is, the stronger they all are.”

Ash felt his eyebrows rocket upward at that and his face took on a surprised affectation.

He genuinely was shocked at the words.

It was the most un-cultivator like thing he’d ever heard, whether it be from his people or not.

“They’re part of the momentum of the Sheng. A strong person getting stronger doesn’t change the momentum as much as a weak person getting stronger.

“They’ve all felt it when that happens.

“Good examples are when you suddenly put your attention toward a crop of Brides and the momentum of everything drastically becomes more.

“By the way, so far, all predictions have been correct.

“That group of Brides is quite literally tearing through the ranks at full speed.

“As a group.

“They refuse to be separated and are more akin to priestesses if I had to term it as something. Lord Sheng is waiting for them. Lord Sheng is coming. Lord Sheng-blah blah blah.

“Thankfully they treat Siu as your personal representative so there’s no problems. They just revere you as more than just their Husband.”

“We’re ready,” Hui said and stepped up in front of Ash, giving him a wide smile. “I worked with Siu and made sure everything was exactly as it should be. I was personally responsible for picking out every single Bride that would be here.

“They’re all perfectly accomp—”

Ash laid a hand to Hui’s head and began to tenderly rub his fingers and palm back and forth. His fingertips curling against her hairline and brushing along it.

“Good work, Bride Hui Sheng. You’re a wonderfully amazing woman whom I’m grateful to have a personal relationship with,” he murmured. He knew that the Brides would hear him and if anything be motivated.

The Knights were motivated by the strength and power he had given them, the Brides were Cultivators. Both groups had their own need and they were quite different.

“Mmm,” mumbled Hui, her eyes closing and leaning toward him even as his hand continued to move around the top of her head.

“Siu and Hui, you’re both doing splendidly while Mei and Jia are recovering. Thank you,” Ash continued, turning his gaze to Siu who wasn’t far off. She was currently fanning her face and watching him. “Now, are we ready? Knights?”

“Ready, Lord Sheng,” said a Knight Ash didn’t know along with a salute. He had no doubt that the man was likely high-ranked, but Ash was becoming more and more removed from the base of these things.

I wonder if this is how a CEO or a military leader feels.

“Okay. Then… off we go. I hope you all can find my realm a home of your own. This was where the Sheng sprang from, of course,” Ash stated, pushing at Hui’s hair as he spoke. He genuinely enjoyed touching Hui’s hair if he was honest with himself.

“You’re just a very physical man. You enjoy being touched, and end up touching others, as that is your own personal way of expressing emotion. Why do you think Mei, Xiuying, and Siu touch you so much? They all already figured it out.

“Moira knew a long time ago and only told Tala, before you ask. I didn’t think it was worth mentioning them since it was obvious.”

Ash grinned with one side of his mouth, reached out, and tapped his ring to the portal.

There was a rushing sound that filled the area followed by the metal slamming apart and opened. Revealing to Ash the interior of a darkened area.

Wherever this portal opened to, it was dark.

Very dark.

Pitch black without stars, type of dark.

Then monsters flooded through the portal.

Monsters that had once been creatures turned to mystical creatures.

Apes with horns, massive lions with rainbow hued manes, snakes that breathed flames, one and all they came pouring out of the otherside.

As one, the Knights stepped forward, created a wall, and put their large shields in front of themselves. The hordes of beasts and creatures colliding with the immovable bulk of the defenses.

The second line of Knights moved up to the backs of their compatriots and began stabbing out with spears over the top of their brothers and sisters.

Weapons that broke right through Qi and Qi defenses were the mainstay of the Knights and Qi-beasts and monsters were just as weak to them as Cultivators were.

Except these monsters were strong.

Strong to the point that even though they were reminded of their mortality in the face of the Knights of Sheng, that they pushed on and attacked back.

Ash grasped at his Dao and brought it to the fore. Throwing a chunk of his Dao into it and trying to match it to the situation right now.

Once again, Ghast was there.

Flooding him with fluffy, kind, and overwhelmingly needy Qi.

That only he could give her the world and she’d be happy with scraps so long as he gave them to her with care.

Just behind her Qi came Liu’s, just as willing, though not as desperate.

Steady, unflinching, and without doubt.

Unable to do much with all the Qi he was being loaded with, Ash dumped it into his Dao, causing it to skyrocket to the pace of the fight that’d been thrust upon them.

Once his Dao felt as if it were in the right space, the correct momentum and rhythm, Ash began channeling his Qi back to Liu and Ghast. The remains of the overage were shunted to the Hall or any Brides he felt didn’t have a full Qi-Sea.

Only to feel Liu gently divert the Qi away from those Brides and back towards the Hall. Apparently they were lacking Qi for a reason.

Brides pushed up to just behind the Knights and worked to offset the mad press of monsters and beasts. Pushing out with their Dao’s, abilities, and weapons.

Quickly, the semi-circle around the portal solidified with bodies packed in close and tight. Shoulder shoulder, back to front, and protecting one another.

Rou popped into being not far away.

Surprisingly several women dressed in what Ash could only regard as street-clothes from a modern world appeared. As if brought here by Rou, in fact. As well as two other women who were dressed in clothes that looked far more traditional for a Cultivator.

Siu was at Ash’s right side, Xiuying his left.

Chunhua and Hui had quickly joined the semi-circle and were adding their own talents to the fight.

Moira and Tala were standing further back but clearly waiting to step into any breach or assist with anyone.

Ash felt strange standing where he was and acting the part of a commander being protected, rather than a fighter, but he also knew this was where he was best suited at the moment.

If he got into the mix all he would do was panic everyone around him.

More than likely causing them to suffer distress and concern at him being involved so directly, rather than being buoyed at his direct intervention.

In fact, he caught more than a few Brides looking around to confirm that he was exactly where he had been. To assure themselves he was someplace safe and not in the fight.

A Knight went down under the weight of a gorilla lifting up both fists and smashing them down. Both big hands crashing into the partially raised shield and flattening the Knight.

Ash lost sight of the individual as they fell to the ground, though their place was immediately taken by another Knight. Almost at the same time, a Bride went down in a heap as some type of projectile slipped through several defenses and hit the woman.

One of the Cultivators with Rou had darted forward and caught the Bride up. They were quickly drug out of the fight and back toward Rou.

At some point the same Knight that’d been laid low had been pulled free of the mad crush of bodies and was now being worked on by the women in plain clothes.

From what was likely a storage device an entire medical kit had been dropped down onto the ground. The type that Ash would’ve expected from paramedics or first responders.

Only to be even more surprised as hospital equipment started to appear.

In no time at all, the Knight had an IV stuck in them, dosed with several injections, and had been stuck off to the side. Modern medicines and procedures clearly being implemented to help with the Knights since a Qi-Healer couldn’t do anything for them.

You’ve been busy, Locke Sheng.

This is clearly something you’ve been working on.

How much is it costing us? Or did cost us?

“Very little. Mostly a lot of throw-away medicines that we purchased. The barest of things given to low-rank Cultivators or used on citizens. After proving their efficacy once we’ve been able to trade at extremely high values for them.

“I’m making sure to only utilize medicines that would be unable to be replicated on this world. Where the ingredients themselves have a touch of Qi so that there is no possibility of replication.”

Beautiful, brilliant, sexy, and ever so cuddly.

How’d I get so lucky with my Locke?

“Aren’t you flattering and kind at the moment.

“That means this is the part where I tell you that I accidentally, mind it really was an accident, admit I opened an embassy in a country and managed to recruit a hundred brand new Brides.

“Which isn’t really an issue, until I uh… well… somehow it turned out to be another Fated One’s kind of situation and… well… oopsie, they’re all super pretty, maidens, and eager to prove themselves?

“They’ve already started opening up social-media accounts to post about what they’re doing and they already have their Bonds of Sheng and are being trained up fairly well.

“It’s just… we have… a lot more… people who want to join? All of them clearly touched by the Fated One’s pull?

“Tee hee?

“I really didn’t do it on purpose this time! It just happened!”

Ash dismissed Locke and her clear attempt to throw in bad news when he was occupied and focused on the fight at hand. He’d punish or reward her later after he looked into it more deeply.

Instead, he set his attention on the Dao and the push and pull of the situation.

The enemy were all individual bits of momentum that made up a force that ran counter to his own, but weren’t in lock-step with one another. They were all strangers or individuals without any cohesion.

While the Brides and Knights worked well with one another, and had trained to this point, they lacked the ethereal connection only he could provide.

If all his people were the water, Ash was the river-bed.

The walls, depth, and angle that channeled it all.

As his attention sharpened and his Dao entrenched itself, it was obvious everyone could feel his presence.

Feel Ash asserting his will.

Shields straightened, weapons were held with more strength, and the crash and boom of the Dao flooded into those that submitted to it.

High-pitched responses from the Knights and the rumbling thrums from the Brides as it all came together in a flash. Throughout the background there was a chorus of voices that bent itself to the fight that wasn’t even part of it.

The whole of the Sheng Alliance had come to a stop to push Qi, determination, and belief in the momentum.

In the Dao of the Sheng.

On the next beat, the Knights thrust their shields forward, pushing the creatures back toward the portal. At the same time those behind them lashed forward with weapons and spells.

Knocking them back further.

Just in time for the Knights to push in again.

Beat by beat, step by step, the frontline condensed tighter and tighter until the line of battle was literally atop the portal. A line of fighting that was so narrow and tightly packed that the Knights were well set to hold it indefinitely.

Staring into the darkness beyond the portal, Ash felt like it was a true den of monsters.

An endless sea of creatures that filled the area just about front to back. That inside there was nothing but them and where-ever they were coming from, had much more to provide.

At the moment Ash was under the belief that they had encountered some sort of defense mechanism. One that had been put down by the previous Emperor as he fled.

To prevent anyone else from following after him and perhaps bringing the plague along with them. After having lost a realm it was almost certain that the experience wouldn’t want to be repeated.

Yet this is a strong counter, but not something that would be enough to stop a deity.

Several, deities, no less.

What exactly does that mean?

There must be more here.

More to this.

This would only be the first part of it.

Let’s… feed the fish.

Ash had a sudden idea and he had a mind to try it.

An idea that’d provide the best possible answer with almost zero risk even if it failed.

“I’m moving, but not joining the fight. Don’t fret,” he warned and then started forward and to the left.

Siu kept pace with him and Xiuying clutched at his arm suddenly, holding to it with one of her own and a weapon held in her other. She was ready for a fight, but didn’t want to be far from him.

Both of Siu’s fans were held in her hands and she had a very thick and visible pink-bubble that’d wrapped itself around Ash and surprisingly Xiuying.

Siu had an outward appearance of a temptress and the personality to outwardly match that.

Right up until anyone other than Ash gave her any attention at all, or even got close to her. Then the fans came out, the bubble would retract, and it was a lot like trying to corner an angry mountain lion.

Reaching the portal, Ash put his hand to it, though he made sure to not touch it with his ring.

Opening his Qi, he carefully began to use some. Not enough to draw Ghast’s attention and cause her to flood him with fluffy feelings.

Just enough to slowly create an oval to match the portal.

Once it was done, Ash wanted to open a way to the Hall.

From the Hall, he wanted it to then open to the world of water. Water he had taken from the ocean to offset how much land he had sunk into the ocean to create Sheng island.

Filled with fish that needed to be fed.

“Here fishy, fishy, fishy,” murmured Ash as a sudden flood of beasts were thrown through the portal.

Where the pressure of the Knights had held them back previously, they no longer did.

All those monsters shot forward as the pressure was released and fell into the world of water.

Ten feet down from the portal was the surface of that water.

Chuckling, Ash stood there with the portal held open.

Given that the portal was one sided all the Knights could see was a black flate plane of Ash’s Qi. No one could see anything at all.

Ash was able to feel what was happening since it was his portal, his connection, and his Qi, however.

Moving his other hand forward, and Xiuying who still held to his arm, Ash opened another portal with another large section of Qi.

He made sure it wasn’t something anyone could pass through. Just in case something happened.

Something like Xiuying.

This portal was just a viewing port of the other.

A stream of monsters falling out of the open portal and splashing into the water below.

To which a great many of them began to paddle and tread water.

At some point they would run out of energy and die.

There was no land here at all.

“Oh! Ashley, can I keep some of these!? They’d be great breeding stock!” Xiuying chirped brightly, leaning in towards Ash. “I would love to make pills out of them!”

“Sweetheart, assist my dear Xiu?” Ash asked instead. He was a bit busy holding the two portals open, let alone trying to deal with these rather powerful monsters. Yet he felt a ripple in his momentum even as he had asked. That the will he had put to words fit the situation for something. “If there’s nothing that can be done, so be it.”

“I’ll make it happen!” promised Locke from nowhere and everywhere.

A third portal opened up beneath the original one and the monsters continued to fall, though now into this new portal. Vanishing away to somewhere that Locke was sending them.

Letting the second portal disapear, Ash began to push his first portal into the darkened room. Letting the Qi expand beyond the portal and crawl across the walls of what was a cave.

Creeping over it speck by speck and expanding.

An all encompassing thing that left no room between itself and the walls, ceiling, or floor.

Sweeping ever more monsters into it and dumping them into Locke’s portal.

The momentum of it all continued to build despite that.

Despite the fact that it seemed as if the monsters weren’t going to be a problem.

In fact, it felt as if the opposition were growing.

A counter-flow that was also swelling larger by the second rather tahn falling away.

Except Ash couldn’t tell if it was from the realm he had called home, or the cave in which there were countless monsters.

It left him feeling confused and cold inside.

That perhaps him returning wasn’t a grand home coming he had been expecting it to be.