CC4 -ch26-

Ash started awake.

He could feel grass beneath his back and he was gazing up at the same grey sky he’d seen only a few moments ago.

“What?” asked Ash, blinking several times.

Then Rou was there, leaning over him. He could feel her right hand pressed to the side of his head. Her left hand was held up in front of herself.

Spinning in her palm were all five of the standard elements of cultivation. Metal, Fire, Earh, Water, Fire, and Wood. Hovering above her hand.

Spinning and chasing one another. Feeding off of and feeding others.

At the center was a pure white ball of Qi and surrounding it all was a faint black circle. Rou’s eyes were practically glowing as she gazed down at him.

“Ah… there we are,” she murmured while holding his gaze. “Your heart stopped beating. You were dead. I’ve brought you back.”

Ash took in a slow breath and nodded his head fractionally. Then shook it.

He had no idea why his heart had stopped but it sounded decidedly bad.

“Thank you, my Qi-Healer,” Ash mumbled.

“Oh, of course. It’s what I’m here for. Quite literally,” Rou answered, a smile curling the corners of her mouth upward. “You fight and put your life on the line, I hold and then step in to make sure you can fight further. It’s symbiotic. I’d fall to someone else without you, and you’d be at a greater risk without me.”

“Dead. I’d be dead,” Ash countered, then he turned his head slightly. He didn’t want to stare at the mesmerizing display of Qi control Rou was demonstrating. It also left him feeling rather strange watching it.

It didn’t look normal and he’d never heard of a Qi-Healer doing such a thing. Even the single Qi-Healer he’d met, never used their own Qi, but the patient’s Qi.

Ash had no Elemental Qi.

“How long as I down?” Ash asked.

“Seconds,” Rou stated with some pride in her tone. “Seconds. I was here just as you lost consciousness.

“And before you ask, yes, you can stand up. I’ve repaired everything I can up to the point that I should. You’ll need to take a pill as soon as we’re alone to finish it. If I do more than this, it’ll be too obvious that I’m a godly Qi-Healer.”

Rou snapped her hand shut and smothered the floating Qi balls into nothing. Then she grabbed him by the shoulder and hauled him upward.

Hesitating, she then laid a kiss to his lips. Afterward she stood up then began pulling him up as well. Getting him to his feet she grabbed him by the forearms and stabilized him.

Siu and Hui were there as well, standing on either side of Rou.

The former watching him curiously, the latter looking like she wanted to grab him and start cultivating immediately. That it was a question of willpower that kept her from doing so and nothing else.

“It isn’t pure,” muttered Hui, staring at him. He knew exactly then that she was indeed thinking of trying to cultivate through him.

“Later,” he answered and then stumbled off toward his enemy. Ghast was coming his way now after having gone off to gloat, taunt, and heckle the loser of their bet.

He needed to do what he said he would.

Reaching the champion, Ash bent down and dug his fingers into the man’s face. He quickly sunk his fingers into the sockets of his eyes and pulled the eyeballs free.

Standing up, he began moving toward Ghast as she moved toward him.

Across her face was a smile as bright and inviting as a morning sun after a cold night. There was no compulsion to do anything for her, or to her, thankfully.

She was just that attractive.

“My lady Ghast. I’ve won the duel,” Ash grunted out and then held up his hands. “Per your request, here’s what you asked for.

“I apologize for the use of so much Qi. It was needed to make the fight go in my favor.”

Ghast glanced to the bloody remains in his hands. She reached out and scooped them out of his hands with one of her own and closed her hand. She smiled at him and tilted her head to the side.

“It’s fine. You didn’t spend that much comparatively to what you earned me. I’ll be chasing Si’Sha from here and challenging her repeatedly,” Ghast confessed. She held the gory gift he’d given her as if they were precious, and not a body part he’d just plucked from a corpse. In fact, she held the closed hand that held them to her cleavage. “Thank you, my Hand. Thank you. I’m going to go get as much I can from her then come and visit you to give you some more rewards. Be prepared to receive me.

“Until then, go back to Wahst. You can ignore the rest of this meeting, it no longer concerns you.

“That and if you remain here, it’s likely that they’ll try to do something stupid. Take everyone back to Wahst.”

“Yes, my Lady Ghast,” Ash concurred, dipping his head in a nod toward Ghast.

“Mm… at first, I was a little off-put with that term. Now I suddenly find I like it,” Ghast whispered. Then she leaned forward and placed a delicate kiss on his cheek. It lasted for a few seconds before she pulled away. “Go home, my Hand, I’ll come and speak with you about rewards later. Give my respect to your wives.”

Turning, Ghast and walked away swiftly. There was no sway to her hips. No grace to her gait.

She was moving with a purpose and speed.

Ash noted that Si’Sha was sprinting towards her airship. She apparently didn’t want to stick around.

“Well, I didn’t like that, but it wasn’t too bad,” Locke snarled from beside him. Her arms were crossed in front of herself. “She knows better than to have kissed you or done more but… still. You’re married and pledged. She should know better.”

“She does,” Hui countered with a light sniffle. “She made her intentions known to all without pushing too far. All know she’s interested in Ash and would take offense if someone did something to him.

“It also tells you, his wives, she’s interested in him. Ghast did it in a spectacularly subtle while bold way. I applaud her style.”

“That’s only because you’re not a wife. Not as close to him as those who will spend our waking and sleeping moments with him,” Rou murmured. “If you were one of his women, rather than just a weapon, you’d be annoyed. Angry.”

Hui frowned, her brows drawing down low. Her mouth was slit into a frown now. She didn’t look happy.

“We should go,” Ash said, turning to look at the corpse of the champion.

“I already looted him. We can leave. Moira is going to get Kyle,” Locke offered. “We’ll be gone in an hour.”

“Good,” Ash got out in a whisper. Then he turned and put his head on Rou’s shoulder and hung onto her. He managed to disguise popping a medicinal pill into his mouth before wrapping his arms around Rou’s hips. “I owe you, my Qi-Healer.”

“Oh… ah… oh my,” Rou giggled while putting her arms around him in return. She tilted her body and took up his weight as if she were going to hold him upright. “Hello, my Cultivator. Dear. Husband. Are you alright?”

“I just need you. That’s all,” Ash confessed, rubbing his face into her neck. Rou was one of his very much needed personages.

Someone he had to have at his side.

Mei, Jia, Tala, Moira, Na, Rou, Chunhua, Yue, and Locke were all people he needed. That if the realm collapsed around him, if he had those eight people, he’d be fine.

Everything would turn out well if he just hung onto them.

“I just need you,” repeated Ash, nuzzling her neck and hanging on as if she were a life preserver.

Then he felt Locke hug him from behind while also hugging Rou.

Then Siu’s pink bubbled enveloped him and he felt a tap on his shoulder from something stiff. The blossoming feeling of sexual energy he had was dissipated.

He was grateful for that.

The last thing he wanted right now was to be sexually aware of them when he just wanted comfort.

***

Tan was loping along beside their procession. Moving at a blurring speed that made Ash have to focus on him to actually see him.

Then he pivoted, turned, and began running in a different direction. Only to do the same again, and again.

Each time he did it, Ash had to focus again to see him. His eyes only barely able to discern his shape and form as he moved.

“I can’t follow him,” Rou admitted and sighed.

“It takes power and skill. The latter, you’d have, the former, you don’t,” Hui answered, her eyes tracking the young man. “We’re grateful for who and what you are, you don’t need to be more.”

This was training for bother Tan, and his people.

Sheng Knights blurred the line between citizen and cultivator, but also went past in some regards.

Given that many cultivators relied on their Qi enhanced senses, and that Tan was made to ruin those, he was hard to follow visually. It became faster and more attainable the more Ash practiced it, but it wasn’t easy by any means.

“If they’re all like Tan, they’ll be a perfect counter-point to the Brides. I just wish it didn’t sound like most would die in the creation,” Moira offered up.

“I think three out of four would die during the creation,” Locke hypothesized. “I can’t guarantee that of course since it could only be tested by doing it but… I’m fairly confident.”

“That’s such an unfavorable risk,” mourned Siu, her fan fluttering lazily in front of herself. “It’s just something that can’t be taken by someone who isn’t willing to die. The Knights numbers will be very few. We’ll have to protect them till they grow strong.”

“That’d be wise,” Hui stated. “The Brides protect the Knights in their early period. They in turn will support the Sheng alliance as a whole once they have adapted to their changes.

“The parent doesn’t plant a tree so that they can enjoy the shade, they do it so their children can. This’ll be the same since it’s likely it’ll take a few years for Knights to truly be ready. It’s a good thing you didn’t use your transference ability on him.

“There’s no telling how his enhancements would have reacted.”

Ash could only nod his head.

A Knight could only be someone unaffected by Qi and without a Dantian. On the opposite spectrum of what a cultivator was.

Which meant that theoretically, Ash could drown the realms in Knights and probably decimate the cultivator world.

Good thing I’m not a super villain.

“Your name is too friendly to be a super villain. Need something old and slightly off beat. Like Felix. Or Alex,”  Locke agreed.

The city-lord had gone ahead of them in the end while they made final purchases in the city. While he wanted to listen to Ghast’s order, he really wanted to make sure he bought everything he might need from the city. There was no telling when they’d be back that way.

Tan flickered into being in front of Ash.

In his lost thoughts he’d lost sight of the Knight.

“Ha… this is rather fun. I feel tired but it isn’t a bone weary exhaustion like it used to be,” Tan said, dragging a wrist across his brow. “Will you do what you said and open up the Knighthood when we get back?

“Even with the survival rate as low as you claim it is, I know there will be many people who want to join. Many people who would be willing to risk their life on the possibility of becoming as powerful as a cultivator.

“Even if it’s signing away their freedom to do whatever they want. I know there’s many who will agree to it. Even if it’s just a chance to become more than what they were and that’s the only guarantee they get.”

“Yes, I’ll open the Knighthood up. Probably tomorrow though rather than today,” Ash confirmed. “I have to check in with Luan first. She’ll be your Master Knight. She will be responsible for sect training and knight training both.

“Unless she’s ready to handle more recruits, there’s no point in recruiting more. She’s likely just barely starting to get a handle on all the new sect disciples and their basic orientation.”

“Orie… orien-tay-shon?” Tan asked, walking backward and keeping pace with everyone.

“When everyone is told what the expectations of them are for joining the sect. They’ll get all the rules, expectations, and guidance,” Ash explained.

“Oh! Oh, alright. Yes. Okay. I’m going to run ahead and see if I can go check in with Luan,” Tan reported. He pivoted, planted a foot, and was gone in a flash. Rushing off down the road.

“I don’t think he’ll have any issues making it there. We’re only an hour or so away anyways,” Locke remarked. “And before you ask, yes, those rats are still following. They’re being very subtle about it, but they’re there.”

Locke had discovered there were multiple groups of people following them. Keeping an eye on their group and watching from a distance.

Some had even started fighting one another when they’d unexpected stumbled together. Locke had suddenly been able to utilize more of the Hall after Ash began to cultivate his gains from killing the Champion.

If he didn’t know better, he was starting to think that his own power would be the limiting factor in this prison for how much Locke could do.

That perhaps here, in this realm that wasn’t part of his home, the Hall was limited in a way that shifted how it functioned, but didn’t negate it.

She couldn’t go back and forth through the Hall, but she could take glimpses into the areas around Ash. As if she were able to open a small window from where she was, to where she wanted, and peek through it.

It was a welcome change and she seemed mentally healthier for it as well. While she didn’t seem to be in any danger of losing herself given being in her body all day every day, he imagined there was still a mental strain there.

“Hui should go slaughter them,” declared the woman, turning to look over her shoulder. Back the way they’d come down the ruined boulevard.

Traveling in the prison was strange to say the least.

Ash was still terribly uncomfortable with the fact that the whole thing was mostly a ruined city. That travel to other “cities” was mostly done by going block to block inside the mega city ruins.

While he’d taken some time to explore a few buildings in the ruins, he’d found it was at a technological level comparatively to what he’d grown used to. There wouldn’t be any tech scrounging unfortunately.

“No, Hui. I don’t want to risk you. There’s no telling what their power levels are. For all we know, they’re just like that champion that almost killed me,” Ash declined firmly.

“Hui will not do anything without your approval. Hui lives for your direction as your weapon,” Hui answered firmly. Though even as she spoke, her mouth turned once again into a frown. Her eyes sliding away from him and to the side.

Clearly something was on her mind. He hoped she’d be able to discuss it with him soon.

Rather than him having to drag it out of her.

“I’ll discuss what I’m thinking with you soon, Ashley. Don’t give me that look. I’m just attempting to understand myself and my needs,” Hui stated, her eyes still on the rubble of a building to their side.

Ash blinked and looked over at her at her words. He hadn’t realized she’d already been able to peel apart his thoughts.

Highly intelligent.

A strategist, right?

Already thinking way ahead of me?

“Right,” Locke agreed.

“Hui will always be your weapon, Ashley. Even if I figure you out completely and plan ahead of you. Always your weapon,” Hui promised. Then she shook her head briefly, looked at Ash, and smiled at him. “I’m your strategist in the making, Ashley. Your weapon and strategist. I’ll be ever more useful, I know it.

“As to what I was thinking, I believe I understand it. Or at least, more so now. I think in the fullness of time, I’ll end up becoming more than just a weapon for you. I’m too vital to you. Too much of a resource that you don’t have in excess.

“The same goes for Siu if we’re being direct. Your key rols are almost completely filled. There’s no gap at all when you include myself and Siu into that.

“Until our relationship changes in any way though, I think I’d like you to continue treating me as you have. Kindly, affectionately, physical reinforcement like head petting, and giving me awards when I do well.

“Being more intelligent than the average individual doesn’t change my needs or wishes. My desires. It just makes it a bit harder for me to be honest with them or about them.”

With an incredible amount of force, Moira slammed into the ground in front of them. Fragments of stone and pavement were knocked around in every direction.

Ash had no idea that she’d been flying down toward them. Last he knew was that she’d been scouting around them as her ability to fly provided them with a great security envelope.

“There’s something happening at the entry of the prison. The guards appear to have given up on it and are nowhere nearby. They weren’t there when we entered either. Interesting, but not relevant to us,” Moira declared, meeting Ash’s eyes squarely. “Nothing else to report in the area. Everything is as it should be. The groups that are tailing us are doing so discreetly and will probably tag all the way to the city.”

Moira hesitated, then moved forward and hugged him tightly. Forcing his face into her armored chest. One of her hands pressed to the back of his head and her fingers curled into his hair.

“I don’t think there’s anything that we need to be concerned of or for. It’s the normal status quo for the area.”

“Around the entrance?” asked Hui, looking thoughtful. “Wahst is the closest city to the entrance to the prison, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Moira agreed, holding on tightly to Ash.

“We should take the entrance and control it. The guards have given up on it, so let’s turn it into a resource for ourselves,” Hui suggested, looking at him. “If we control the intake, we control contraband resources that are smuggled through. We also get first dibs on new inhabitants and can offer positions to those we want to recruit.

“The flow of inmates is a valuable resource when one considers the only other way to get more citizens is creating them yourself. That takes years.”

Blinking, Ash realized Hui was absolutely correct.

It was a resources that was just there waiting to be picked up and utilized.

“Well, sounds like we’ll be making a detour,” he murmured. “Let’s go see what’s going on and see if it’s something we’ll need to plan for. I’m not sure how many Brides it’ll take to hold the area.”