Chapter 102: Cultivator's Creed
At first, Shin Sumi didn't even see the massive tower erected in the middle of the valley. Even though the tower was large enough to house an entire village on each floor and tall enough to pierce the few clouds that blotted out the night sky, Shin Sumi's eyes only caught a glimpse of it after a long while.
What she saw first was the rest of the valley. There had obviously been a town and fields full of fragrant spirit plants surrounding the tower, but the touches of greens and yellows from the plants and houses was tinted a dark red, almost brown.
Like flecks of dust in the rays of the sun, an array of colored spots sometimes broke the red cover where cultivator robes and bodies lay there, dead.
From a glance, it was hard to tell the number of casualties but it easily ranged in the dozens, and that was without considering what must have happened inside the tower. Entire pans of walls had fallen off and heavy black smoke rolled out constantly from the openings.
Shin Sumi had expected to find the Sky Earth Sect at least a few days before the battle against the massive Blue Fire Sect. Her objective had been to patiently wait, hidden within the sect, and then arrange to be taken prisoner along with the members of the sect.
Only now, seeing the remains of the Sky Earth Sect in front of her, she realized two things.
First, the attack had been much more sudden. Even with their large numbers, the Blue Fire Sect had managed to move at an insane speed to surprise the Sky Earth Sect in the middle of their preparations.
Secondly, Shin Sumi realized that the plan had been foolish.
Despite knowing that a war was brewing, Shin Sumi had never seen such a thing. In her young girl's heart, she had failed to imagine the atrocity of the scene laid out in front of her.
What had made her think that she would be able to ensure her own safety with her previous plan? She had not thought about it much ever since the Patriarch suggested the idea.
The Patriarch had seemed confident enough, was he simply relying on her ability? Or did he not think about that either? Was it a test?
Either way it seemed hard to swallow for Shin Sumi.
Her head started spinning, forcing her to sit down on the mountain top and look away from the bloody valley.
Circulating her cultivation technique to calm her heart and mind, she waited for the time it takes an incense stick to burn before opening her eyes again and daring to look at the remnants of the Sky Earth Sect one more time.
"No matter what was wrong with the first plan, there's no time to dwell on it. I have to decide what to do now."
Past the first shock, Shin Sumi was now calm and collected, at least on the surface. Focusing her eyes, she started to analyse the scene in front of her.
"There are people still moving about. They are all dressed in black robes, I think it is fair to assume that they are part of the Blue Fire Sect. Some of them are bringing the corpses of the Sky Earth Sect disciples to the west end of the valley."
Shin Sumi's eyes shifted, now directed towards the base of the massive grey tower.
"A large number of people are leaving the tower. I think most of them are Sky Earth Sect members and judging by how close they are together and the black robes around, they should be enchained. War prisoners."
Lastly, Shin Sumi looked towards the east of the tower where a swarm of black robes looked like the inside of an ant colony.
"Their forces are overwhelming. If the Patriarch's information is true and the Sky Earth Sect had double the firepower of the Dark Sky Starry Sect, then the Blue Fire Sect has dispatched at least twice as many people.
Considering all of that, my guess is that the attack began when the sun disappeared last night. Six hours was all it took for the war to be over."
Based on what she knew of war tactics and military strategy from teachings of the Dark Sky Starry Sect and her readings in the sect library, Shin Sumi had quickly estimated the duration of the battle and the state of the situation in the valley.
Six hours was not a long time for a battle, but definitely plausible considering the disparity in power between the two parties. In any case, the main assault was already over but it was too short of a time to fully declare the end of the war.
"They must now be starting to explore the tower, finding all the hiding disciples, putting an end to the bravado of the rebellious fighters. With such a large sect in the massive tower, it should be at least a few more hours until the Blue Fire Sect leaves the place. By the end of it, nobody will remain here, and all the treasures and resources will have been looted."
Standing up from her crouching position, Shin Sumi breathed in and out a few times.
"Right. I know what I can do."
The Copper Bell rang once, reverting her to her own appearance instead of Yan Yan's. Not as foolish as before, her new plan was still risky and she would need all of her attention and focus. The Copper Bell was a treasure she had used constantly for so long that it barely used even one percent of her power but just in case, Shin Sumi decided to make sure she could give it her all.
"Invisible Crane of Oblivion!"
In the place where Shin Sumi stood, a strange breeze picked up, only to silently disperse after a second or two, Shin Sumi nowhere to be seen.
She bit her lip, hoping that the slight Shinsoo movement of activating the technique had not been felt below in the valley. Having only learnt the skill the day before, she was still far from having perfected it.
Slowly, Shin Sumi moved to the very top of the mountain and waited for a while. In the valley under her, nothing indicated that her presence had been revealed, which reassured her.
"Let's get going. Invisible Crane of Oblivion won't last for more than twenty minutes."
The whole crux of her plan lay on the fact that Invisible Crane of Oblivion was a very powerful technique based on wind Shinsoo that allowed one's presence to completely disappear as well as distract any onlooker.
Shin Sumi didn't know exactly how it worked, but the technique was described in a page of Nuan's book form. The more someone tried to concentrate on the spot where she, the caster, was, the harder it became.
Unlike other stealthy movement skills, Invisible Crane of Oblivion was very slow, however. The slower Shin Sumi advanced, the more undetectable she would be to higher cultivation levels.
Even a late stage Core Development cultivator would have trouble finding her if she remained unmoving. The only downside was that it took an incredible amount of concentration to maintain for a long time.
Shin Sumi's plan she had elaborated on the spot solely relied on the risky balance of being slow enough to not be detected but fast enough so that the technique would last the right amount of time.
The red fields had mostly been cleared of the corpses by now, and Shin Sumi heaved a sigh of relief when she reached a small hut that had been left standing at the end of the farms.
"I can feel the divine sense of powerful experts passing by. This is where I need to slow down but I've already walked half of the way to the tower in five minutes."
Shin Sumi hoped that upon reaching the immense grey tower, the constant flow of people would make her detection less likely.
Not stopping for a second, Shin Sumi simply reduced her speed until she was walking even slower than a mortal.
Past the fields, the land flattened into a grassy plain. A large amount of rubble still glowing with Shinsoo indicated to her that the gate of the sect had probably been here up to a day ago.
In only one day, a centuries old sect had been wiped out, its infrastructures reduced to ashes and its disciples to prisoners, just like that. Such was the strength of the opposing party, the Blue Fire Sect.
At crawling speed, Shin Sumi made her way through the rubble and waited for a group of Blue Fire Sect disciples to pass in front of her.
Without even realizing, she held her breath, waiting for the moment their divine sense would alert them of her presence. But the moment never came even as she herself sent her divine sense towards the group.
Invisible Crane of Oblivion was an incredible technique, made even stronger thanks to Nuan's refining. Shin Sumi had only briefly read the technique's description at the time and so didn't know exactly what Nuan had changed from the basic technique.
In any case, Shin Sumi seemed undetectable for a group of a dozen Liquid Realm cultivators, all of them between the second and the sixth realm.
Looking towards the east of the tower, even without using her divine sense, she could tell that powerful Shinsoo fluctuations the likes of which she had rarely felt before emanated from the middle of the black robed army.
"There is at least a Core Development Realm expert over there, there's no mistaking it. Wait, actually there should be more than ten!"
For an assault on an entire sect, even the mighty Blue Fire Sect could not do without intense firepower. Numbers alone were useless in the face of strong cultivators. From what she knew of the Dark Sky Starry Sect, even without counting the reserve power, the Ghosts, the number of Core Development cultivators was at least five.
If the Sky Earth Sect was even stronger than the Dark Sky Starry Sect, then it could be expected of them to have between five and ten strong cultivators. They alone would be enough to drive off any army, unless they were matched.
"I can't go any further east or I would have to stop walking in order to remain undetected," Shin Sumi thought. She had never wanted to go east in the first place, "this fallen wall will do."
In front of her, only a few steps away, laid a portion of wall so massive that it could have flattened a few houses as it fell. The stones still held together miraculously as the pan of wall was in a seemingly unstable incline against the tower.
Above the highest stones of said wall was a large opening of the same shape in the tower's second or third floor.
"How nice, they made me a way in!"
Still focusing on keeping the Invisible Crane of Oblivion on, Shin Sumi climbed the steep wall. Had she not been maintaining the stealth technique, a couple of steps would have sufficed but instead she patiently climbed, stone by stone.
Because at this point the technique was still fairly new to her, she knew she could not use any other technique relying on Shinsoo at the same time.
"Now where should I go? Maybe -uh?"
Shin Sumi stopped behind the open wall of the tower as she felt a very familiar divine sense invade her mind.
From within the space inside the leaf pattern on her wrist, Nuan was signaling her something. In only an instant, Shin Sumi understood and relaxed a bit, just in time for a slight breeze to pick up around her.
That was her current time limit for the Invisible Crane of Oblivion. As the technique dispersed and Shin Sumi's presence was made clear to any focused observer, she started running decidedly towards the inside of the tower.
Even with her Liquid Realm third step divine sense, she could tell that there was a lot of activity inside the tower. Some groups of black robes were busy opening doors and stealing treasures. Many soldiers from the two sects were still fighting each other, inevitably ending with the cultivators from the Blue Fire Sect taking the surviving opposition prisoners.
With the messy battles and movement all around, Shin Sumi was confident that her divine sense and aura wouldn't stick out, even to a Core Development Elder supervising the assault. She was just another presence amongst hundreds.
"This level has been almost entirely cleared out already, I need to go higher."
As she made her way inside the tower, relying on her divine sense and a quickly drawn hiding formation to avoid crossing paths with other people, Shin Sumi's heart beat furiously in her chest.
It was a mixture of fear and exaltation as she managed to invade the tower deeper and deeper while anybody with her skill set would absolutely try to leave and go as far away as possible.
On the fourth level of the tower, which had not yet been cleared by the black robes, Shin Sumi stumbled upon three disciples from the Blue Fire Sect. In the confusing mix of divine senses that was the ongoing battle, Shin Sumi had not realized they were on the same path as her.
Without thinking, she stopped for half a step as the disciples started running towards her. Her hand was already on her bag of holding, ready to summon the Void Sword at her will but she stopped herself.
Instead of bringing out her weapon, she stomped the ground in front of her, building tension in her thighs and calves.
"Summer Breeze Wind Step!"
The first step took her past the first attacker as his sword was swiping at the afterimage she had just left. The second step left a second afterimage which startled the second black robed disciple as his fist only met empty air before exploding with Shinsoo.
"This technique is incredible," Shin Sumi marvelled at how easily she had avoided two attacks, even in the cramped space that was the stone corridor, "with a sword, I could even have cut them down as I flew by!"
Shin Sumi took a third step, intending on getting past the third disciple whose hands were raised, surely as he was invoking his own attack.
SLAM!
Right after the burst of power in her legs, Shin Sumi's face turned red, distorted by pain. She only slightly registered her broken shoulder and upper arm as her eyes were instantly drawn to the air above her, where a pink-ish barrier had appeared, blocking the path between where she was a moment ago and the third disciple.
The man who had erected the barrier smiled ferociously, his hands now falling down onto the guard of the sword at his hip.
"Don't get up," Shin Sumi thought to herself, "that's perfect, if I'm beat, they will take me prisoner, right?"
She moaned in pain, her eyelids seemingly heavy as her head was surely roaring with the pain of having slammed into a wall at high speed.
Under her helpless expression and act, Shin Sumi's muscles tensed up imperceptibly as she was ready to pounce at the man. According to her calculations, the man would probably choose to chain her and have her taken away like the other war prisoners but she knew exactly what the grin on his face was, and the lust in his eyes wasn't even disguised as he eyed her up and down.
"Take her with the others, Bao Du. Zhai Ji, stop smiling like an idiot and come with me, there might be others hiding close-by."
The man who had stopped Shin Sumi, Zhai Ji, wasn't smiling anymore. A look of rage was directed towards the first man, then to Shin Sumi. The next instant his foot blurred towards her, Shin Sumi's stomach twisting inward and she coughed a mouthful of blood, her eyes reddened by the pain brought by the kick, for real this time.
Her stomach was reeling in pain. Shin Sumi had been ready to escape but she had gravely forgotten to shield herself in Shinsoo, as all of her energy was concentrated on her legs and arms to push herself away.
More than just the kick, what had hurt her the most was the forced dissipation of all her Shinsoo due to the shock.
As she laid there, her shoulder crushed and her belly wrecked, her Shinsoo in turmoil, she couldn't think straight and barely registered the sensation on her other arm, the one under her pressed against her bag of holding.
Of three consecutive green flashes, hidden by her body, Shin Sumi only felt Nuan do something but didn't know what.
She didn't have time to think properly though, as Bao Du, the soldier left behind, spoke in a low voice, his palm turned towards her.
"Blue Fire Holy Restraints!"
Shin Sumi's arms suddenly straightened along her body, forcing a short scream out of her mouth as her shoulder twisted right where the bone was broken. She tried circulating Shinsoo, only to find that the magical restreints had made it completely impossible to gather more than a sliver of it outside her dantian.
Unable to break through the restraints or use a movement skill to escape, Shin Sumi had no choice but to use that tiny bit of Shinsoo to alleviate the pain on her shoulder.
Her belly would hurt for a while longer, but she knew her organs had not ruptured and it would heal over time, however she needed to make sure her shoulder was tended to.
With a disinterested look in his eyes, Bao Du grabbed her by the collar of her robe, forcing her off the ground with one hand.
"I'll be taking that," he said as he swiftly removed her bag of holding from her waist, "now walk forward."
Shin Sumi gritted her teeth and complied. She had managed to get herself caught and brought along the survivors of the Sky Earth Sect as a war prisoner, but it felt like a hollow victory.
In her cunning plan, she had never expected to actually get caught, only letting herself be caught. Even more devastating than her broken bones and twisted stomach, she had not thought about her bag of holding, containing all of her weapons, techniques and treasures.
Her bag of holding had contained it all, Copper Bell, Void Sword, jade compass, identification jade, Sky Deception,... All of her possessions. Except Nuan.
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