CC6 -ch 10-

Ten

Ash felt it when something rocketed past him in the dark and he got the general sense that it was Siu or Tala. As if they’d turned themselves into a missile and were diving a lot like a hawk slinging itself toward prey.

Distantly, Ash could see the bottom of the tunnel now.

It was lit up with something though he wasn’t sure what. Growing brighter by the second he quickly saw Hui and Tala, pressed to the walls of the bottom of the tunnel. The light was being generated by several hand-held artifacts.

Siu had caught Xiuying ahead of him, then slammed into the bottom of the hole. The overly-beautiful young woman’s knees bending.

To the point that her legs went out, her rear end thumped into the bottom, and Ash was sure something had broken.

Xiuying had been caught safely, though.

In what Ash could only guess as somewhere between ten to fifteen seconds he had traveled from the top of the hole to the bottom.

Before he could throw out his Qi to cushion his fall, he felt something grab him by the back of his clothes and slow him down quickly. To the point that when his feet his the bottom it was as if he’d been set down.

Tala and then Chunhua did the same beside him.

“Ah, did my beautiful Sorceress catch me?” Ash asked with a grin, looking to the white-eyed and extremely powerful woman.

“Of course! Lord Sheng shouldn’t be bothered with such a thing like this,” Chunhua said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Before anyone could do anything further Rou appeared and quickly hustled over to Siu.

The Bride Commander had set Xiuying to the side and was now laid out on the ground.

Which was actual ground, Ash noted.

Looking up above him, he saw only a few feet above them was a point where the ice became earth. That at some point, the giant drill had broken through to where the ground began.

Looking to the Bonds of Sheng, Ash found they were much more horizontal now. To the point that they only sloped downward at a fifteen degree angle.

Their destination wasn’t very far at all if it had gone from straight down, to now at such a gentle slope in comparison.

“Did our dear-Xiu bring-us to the right-spot yet again?” Siu asked in a rough voice. She was sprawled out on the ground with Rou hovering over her. The Qi-Healer’s hands were moving about her in a gentle and directed manner.

Ash looked around to see what had probably changed due to Xiuying’s interference.

Whenever Fortune’s Chosen was thrust into a situation, there was always some type of change that occurred.

A large chunk of ice had broken off from where Xiuying had fallen in, so Ash assumed that there was more than likely a giant hole somewhere.

As his eyes roamed around he threw a constant stream of sexualized thoughts, fantasies, and desires, at Siu. All them about her, with her, or involving her.

Plowing through them as quickly as he could, with as much intensity as he could manage, he searched the area. Because Siu was the embodiment of his personal desires and wishes, which meant she was connected to him in a way that he wasn’t comfortable with.

All he had to do was think of her, generate interest to her, and she grew ever stronger.

Thankfully with how often he threw thoughts and feelings toward her, she no longer gravitated toward his bed when he was with anyone else.

“Oh me, oh my, that’s wonderful, my love,” Siu purred in what was a lot like a moan.

To which Rou sighed, harrumphed, and put her hands on her hips.

“I’ve corrected what I needed to, Ash has done the rest,” Rou reported. “I worry for our dear Sister that she gets too lost in her own Dao but… this was your own wish after all.”

“It was,” agreed Siu, slowly sitting herself up.

Ash spotted where the chunk of ice Xiuying had been standing on had smashed through the wall of the hole. It was actually hard to see and if he hadn’t been looking for it, he would’ve missed it.

Constructing a staircase made out of Qi, he formed it and made sure the end fit right up to the hole.

“Ah, is that where our Fortune’s Chosen guided us to?” Tala asked and began taking the steps up. Her large blade settled on her shoulder comfortably. “My Elegant Cuddly Bunny wife self shall take the lead. I’d like to earn some rewards from my ever tender Husband.”

Eh… at least she’s honest about everything now.

That’s a lot better than where she was previously.

Or at least, honest about everything other than the personality she wants.

Tala stepped to the top of the stairs, into the hole, and vanished. As if where the hole was, led straight into somewhere that was easy to access.

Which made sense to Ash given Xiuying was involved.

“— you’re okay? Really?” Xiuying was asking in a panicked voice, kneeling down next to Siu. She had both hands pressed to the other woman’s face and was staring down into her visage.  “Really?”

Laughing, Siu smiled and reached up to pat Xiuying’s hand on her cheek with one of hers.

“I’m fine. I’m healing quickly. If I wasn’t, I’d have taken one of your fantastic pills,” Siu promised. “Probably the one made to strengthen bones, I think you said. I mostly broke things.”

“I put so much bone powder into those pills,” Xiuying squeaked out, not releasing her hold on Siu. Only to begin smooshing Siu’s face around and staring at her as she did so.

Leaving Xiuying to her odd little eccentricies Ash followed Moira and Chuna up the stairs. He knew Hui would be right behind him and Rou would be leaving in only a moment.

Siu and Xiuying would catch up when it was suitable for Fortune’s Chosen, he imagined. She was ever and always exactly where she needed to be, for what was best for her.

Thankfully, so far at least, she had decided that what was best for her, was being at Ashley’s side. He didn’t have any expectations for her to be there and did his best to be thankful for every moment she was.

Because trying to grasp her, or hold onto her, was probably the quickest way to losing her.

Like attempting to harness luck.

Reaching the top of the stairs Ash peered inside and saw that, unbelivably, it was an open area. One that began as ice but then shifted into dirt and earth.

Only to become what was a lake.

A lake, deep under ground. With ice for a ceiling.

How wondrous and strange.

Pausing at the top of the steps after looking over the interior he realized he didn’t need to move ahead quite yet. The area looked as if it were secure, though he did note that there was an opening that led elsewhere on the other side of the lake.

Taking a step to the side, Ash looked down the stairs, then held his hand out to Hui who was coming up now.

Taking it, she smiled at him in a way that reminded him of the haughty and arrogant young woman he’d met a long time ago.

“You look beautiful,” he said without thinking about it. “A lot like that proud woman I knocked into the dirt. Just maybe prettier. With a lot less ego.”

Hui’s face turned an instant crimson at his words and her lips pressed together tightly.

Walking up the stairs she squeezed his hand once and just about ran away from him, hurrying off to join Tala without even a response.

Chunhua then received his hand next and chuckled as she ascended.

“I’m suddenly quite thankful for the fact that my own meeting with you was so humble. Humble and willing to give you all of myself,” said the sorceress as she stepped off the stairs. “Oh, how pretty. This is a lovely little spot for a Sheng monument. I know the Brides and Knights would both enjoy such a location for contemplation.

“Perhaps it’d be more in line for the knights, actually. The Brides would be unlikely to leave the shores of the Lake of the Fallen Bride.”

Wincing at the mention of it, Ash knew for a fact that the Brides did indeed respect the location. They treated it as a tomb and altar at the same time.

“If the portal to the realm is here, this’ll be a wonderful location for the knights. I do agree with Chunhua.

“The Lake of the Fallen Bride really is more suited to the Brides given how it was made.

“Or as some call it, Eternal Bride Li’s rest.

“There’s a an altar where she was entombed as well as a statue of her. The plaque we put in describing the story of her death and the Lake is also quite tasteful.

“As Lord Sheng, you do need a proper background, you know. You’re growing ever closer to becoming more than human. We have to make sure the path of your godhood is shown, step by step.”

Ash ignored all that for the most part. He didn’t want to think about the fact that he wasn’t human anymore. He knew for a fact that he wasn’t given how his dantian’s constantly responded to his attention.

That he had quite literally granted a young woman with little talent, talent equivalent to Chunhua without even having carved into her back yet.

How’re the bone carvings looking? I sent you my thoughts on what I read into about it.

“Yes. You have a very similar thought process as I do. The bone carvings should be done first and the latter carvings done upon reaching a higher stage of Cultivation.

“It would help people understand their limits.

“It isn’t that we made mistakes with everyone else, we just found a more efficient way to train people up in the future.

“As to how it’s going… I think we’ll be ready in a week. I’m just testing a few more things, but now that the Knights are part of the momentum of Lord Sheng, they no longer blow up any bones that were donated by Brides willing to help me.”

Donate… bones?

“I grow them them back. With Rou’s help.”

Siu and Xiuying were now coming up the steps. Both seemed fine though Siu had her fan up and it was lightly fluttering back and forth in front of her face. While his thoughts had certainly helped her recover, they were more than likely to leave her on edge for a time.

“Oh, look at you. Being so… so… Ashley,” Xiuying chirped, moving up the steps a bit quicker when he held his hand out to her.

She nearly tripped over her own feet right as she made it to the top and Ash had seen it coming. Snatching her hand and holding her upright as she caught her balance.

Not waiting, other than to give him a quick kiss, Xiuying shot into the new area almost as quickly as Hui did.

Ash of course held his hand out to Siu next.

The lovely woman was coming up the stairs in a very methodical, graceful, and slow way. Preserving a dignity that he did indeed feel she owned and carried herself with.

“Oh me, oh my. Even more thoughts for my self? You think so highly of me,” murmured Siu as she reached the top, having taken Ash’s hand as soon as she could, her fan still fluttering back and forth. “I’m a far cry from the damaged and forlorn young woman my aunt introduced me as.”

“I liked her just as much you realize. She seemed like she needed me to protect her,” Ash countered and curled her arm into his. He began leading her to the lake.

“I’m aware. Those thoughts you throw at me… in them, you always see me as I once was. It’s always me as I was when we met. Almost never as I am now. It’s ever so flattering, you know, that while I’m more fitting to the physical attributes you find enchanting, that emotionally, you still just want to protect me and see me as a woman to cherish,” Siu said with a laugh. “Now, what do we have here?”

“A lake. I think the portal is on the other side. Likely a stairwell leading down,” Ash offered up as he began escorting Siu. “Chunhua and Locke think it should be a Knight’s location for reflection and study.”

Siu was looking around, her eyes taking in the entirety of the area.

“I’d agree. This would be very suitable for them. Very suitable. It’s strangely warm, despite it being ice above and ground below,” she mumbled. “A very strange occurrence.”

Everyone made their way around the lake and to the far side.

Ash had been right that it was indeed a stairwell that led down.

A long stairwell, in fact.

Reaching down into darkness.

“Well, this is fun,” Tala said and began marching down it. She held her left hand up and a flame surrounded it. Casting light around them and down the stairs themselves.

Now that she was doing it, Ash paused and glanced back to the lake behind them.

He had no idea where the light was coming from, but the whole of the lake area was actually well lit. As if someone had done something to the area and made it permanent.

Without another thought to it, Ash began moving down the stairs, Siu on his arm.

Ash watched as the Bonds of Sheng shifted. Coming to a point that they were actually level with him.

At the same point the stairs ended and Tala’s firey light fell upon what was most certainly a portal. One that looked to be a mirror of the one that brought them to this world.

“We found it,” Ash said in a voice that felt suddenly raw. “We… we did it. It’s the exit. It’s the way home.”

Without even thinking he had disentangled himself from Siu and rushed forward to the portal. Coming to stop right in front of it and staring at it.

Part of him wanted to reach out and press his ring to it to activate it, here and now. Without any prep, concern, or even a thought.

Standing here, he could indeed feel that they were on the precipice

That after all this time, being flung into prison, and another realm entirely, he had finally found his way home. It was right here and the distance was the length of his arm.

“We should prepare,” advised Hui. “We don’t know what’s on the other side. For all we know, it’ll spit us out in the upper realm, at the Emperors doorstep.

“Then we would need to explain ourselves. You were sentenced to prison after all.

“I don’t think anyone has ever actually escaped before which… this would most certainly be escaping prison.”

“It could also be somewhere entirely different, yet equally hostile,” put in Tala as she walked up to the portal. “My Elegant Cuddly Bunny Wife self thinks we should send in Knights first, followed by several Bridal Parties.”

“It would indeed be unwise to go in as we are,” Moira confirmed and came to a stop on Ash’s left. Her wing stretched itself and then settled down around him. “As much as I wish to return to our home, to do so without planning is asking for a poor end.”

“We can pull people through to the Hall and have them exit here with Locke’s help,” suggested Siu and snapped her fan shut. “Once we have a suitable exploration force, we can move through. Through and… back home.”

Siu said the last with some kind of emotion that Ash couldn’t actually identify. To his ear, it sounded as if it were somewhere between wistful and concerned.

“I’ll need to see my aunt and how she’s doing. Last I heard, she’d asked Master Gen to marry her,” Siu remarked and then gave her head a small shake. “Apparently they had already briefly talked about it before he became the realm lord which… more than likely gave her a chance with Master Gen.”

“Yes, he’s very much like Ashley,” Xiuying declared and grabbed up Ash’s arm and made herself comfortable under Moira’s wing. “They need to feel your care and concern before they’re going to invest in you at a personal level!”

Xiuying shook her head excitedly, let out a laugh, then kissed Ash on the cheek, squeezing his arm.

“Ashley I love you!” she cheered loudly. “Everyone here loves you. Desperately. Rou, loves you. Mei, Jia, and Na, love you. Locke loves you.Everyone here loves you and wants to spend all their time with you.

“I feel like I should tell you this because everyone else is too terrified to tell you, but we’re all thinking the same thing. There’s no telling what’s on the other side of this portal and we want you to know, just in case something happens.”

“You… you are the queen, of red flags,” Ash said in a strangled voice, looking at the pretty lady at his side. “Red flags. For days. I feel like if you weren’t Fortune’s Chosen, you’d be dead a long time ago under the weight of the red flags you throw out!”

“Haha… I really don’t get what you mean by that,” Xiuying said, wrinkling her nose, and smilling at him. “But I love you. Genuinely. It came on so sudden that I really didn’t even have time to realize it.

“I think it all kinda started when I sat in your lap and fed you. You were so squeamish about it, yet so interested in me. It really knocked my ego up a few places, especially with how pretty everyone is.”

“It’s okay, I understand what you mean. Don’t worry. I’m always watching out for everyone,” Moira promised him, leaning down to meet his eyes and smile at him. Her large eyes peering at him. “Tala and I know it and we work to preserve your happiness. Which is everyone here.”

“Yes, my Elegant Cuddly Bunny Wife self and her Beautiful and Intelligent Keen Eyed Owl partner will save your heart,” Tala stated with a firm nod of her head. “Trust in us, if nothing else.”

“I will guard your lives better than anyone else,” Hui asserted and lifted her chin up. As if she were proud of that statement. “As your elder sister, the one who tends your wounds after she wins, I will guard you all.”

“You were lucky to win last time, Hui. I’m still the guardian,” Chunhua argued.

Ash snorted, grinned, and shook his head.

From fighting for position to be the best, to fighting for the right to protect everyone else.

While he had changed them as Cultivators, they were ever yet, Cultivators.

“Alright. Get the groups together and we’ll open the portal,” he ordered then sighed with the realization of what was about to happen.

Locke, my dearest, we’ll need to discuss who stays behind on this world.

I’d like to have that dinner date with Ghast, as I think I know who might be ideal to put here.

Do you have any suggestions beyond what my own thoughts are?

“I… don’t have any. No. I think your own thought is likely the best from a utility point of view, but I don’t like it from a cultural or organization point of view.

“We don’t have to rush to put someone in charge here though. We can wait to find the right person.”

Alright… still.

Ghast.

Dinner.

“She’s well aware of your intention since she’s one of your pillars and is just about thrumming with anticipation. Or so I guessed when I delivered the news to her that you wanted her, only to find out that she was well aware.

“Being a pillar of your Dao, she knows you in a way very similar to Liu. Your Dao… raises up all who will settle themselves into it.

“Other than me.

“I don’t get raised up by it.

“I raise you up.

“Don’t I, sweetheart?

“Aren’t I your precious pretty, lovely, Locke?”

You very much are.

A pretty princess whom supports me in ways I can barely describe to anyone.

Ash had been working at spoiling Locke whenever he had the opportunity.

She did far too much for him without him rewarding her enough in the past.

He wanted to balance that debt sheet.

The warm and fuzzy response he got back from Locke left him feeling like he’d said the right thing.

Ash turned and looked to Siu just as a handful of Brides began appearing from nowhere.

Likely being brought forward by Siu and Locke working together.

Only for two Knights to step out of nothing, accompanied by several men that surprised Ash.

He had made a small suggestion to Templar and the Knight’s leadership.

That they recruit Cultivators to off-set their own needs and call them Mage-Knights.

Because as often as the Brides were willing to help, there were going to be times that the Knights needed their own Cultivators.

He of course suggested the same thing to the Brides to recruit some women who would be Brides, but serve as Bride’s Maids.

Both had agreed and were in the process of recruiting.

Ash was eager to tap the ring to the portal, but he waited.

It was all coming to an end.

Everything was finally going to be over with his prison sentence and he could be home.