Bab 16: A Phantom's Blade

Later that night, in the heart of the Red Tiger Den, a phantom drifted through the walls and protective formations of the sect as though they didn't exist. Within the private meditation chamber of Sect Master Ra Tul, a towering Warrior over two and a half meters tall sat atop a luxurious meditation cushion. No disciple or Warden of the sect would dare to disturb the powerful man as he soaked in the rich energy from his most recent hunting trophy yet the phantom paid no mind to the burly man's cultivation as she slipped behind him and placed a ghostly blade against his neck.

"Sect Master Ra," she whispered, pressing the blade deeply enough into his neck to spill not only a thin rivulet of blood but to put pressure against his very soul! "Do you remember who you hired to assassinate your rival? Do you still have gratitude for the person who paved the way for you to become a Sect Master?"

The sect master's eyes shot open, revealing jade green irises and cat-shaped pupils that were wide in shock and fear. "Lady Phantom," the muscular man gulped, all of his pride as a powerhouse of his sect melting the instant he recognized the person who held his life in her hands. "Why, why have you come to visit me?"

Five years ago, he'd struck a deal with the Bamboo Silk House to kill a man contending against him for the position of Sect Master. There were several Elders who desired the position, but of everyone who stood forward in the selection, it was his Senior Brother who seemed most likely to secure the seat.

Any of the others, Sect Master Ra could have crushed in his claws, but the man who had tormented him from his earliest days as a disciple, it was impossible to defeat him. Worse, if his Senior Brother had become the new Sect Master, all of his gains would have been stripped away and years of abuse would have begun again.

To save himself and secure his current position, he hadn't hesitated to hire one of the most famed killers of the Bamboo Silk House. He'd expected that it would have taken some time for them to find an opportunity but it had taken less than a day. His Senior Brother, a powerful Warrior and Elder of the sect had died in his sleeping chambers without a visible wound on his body.

Now, the woman responsible for that murder held a knife to his own throat! Why?

"Your disciples have made a grave error," the ghostly voice whispered in his ear, sending shivers down to the depths of his soul.

"Which disciples offended you? I'll discipline them at once," he promised, speaking softly lest the motion of his throat cause the blade to sink deeper.

"I don't know," the phantom said as though she was making idle conversation. "Some of your boys felt they could take advantage of young women. They seemed to believe that they could have their way with anyone they pleased as long as there were more of them and their cultivations were stronger. They should have left my child alone!"

"Child? You, you have a child?" Sect Master Ra said, his eyes wide in panic. "Who in their right mind would create trouble for your child!" The sect master's mind spun and his tongue completely got away from him. Of all the demons to provoke, who had brought this one to his doorstep?

"You'd do well to keep that information to yourself," the phantom said, pressing deeper with their blade. "Clean your house Sect Master Ra, or I'll do it for you," the phantom whispered before fading away as though she had never been there to begin with. Only the shallow cut on Ra Tul's neck attested to his late-night visitor.

A few minutes later, once he had stilled his racing heart and applied an ointment to the wound on his neck, the sect master stepped out of his meditation chamber and grabbed the collar of the Warden outside the door. "I just had a visitor while I was meditating," he growled. "A visitor who slipped right under your nose! If you want to survive the night, wake every Elder, Warden, and Disciple of the Disciplinary Hall at once and bring records of every member of the sect accused of bullying women with their cultivation in the past six months, no, the past year! Tonight, there will be a reckoning!" The sect master's voice rose in volume with each sentence and by the end, his shout could be heard throughout the sect.

The Warden had no idea who had slipped past him but all he had to do was look at the recently treated wound on the sect master's neck to know that someone had provoked the kind of disaster that could doom the sect!

A short time later, in Wu Ningli's room, the crippled woman opened her silver eyes and rolled onto her side, coughing with enough force that she nearly fell from her narrow bed. Blood splattered the handkerchief she clutched to muffle her coughs, lest the noise wake Wu Ling. These past three years, she felt like her son never slept soundly, always alert to signs her health had deteriorated or that the pain of her injuries had flared up again.

This time, she didn't want him to know, or even to notice. In her current, crippled state, there was little she could do to keep him safe as he took his first steps into the world as a cultivator. It might have surprised Sect Master Ra to know that, if he'd tried to fight her, he could have easily dispelled the weak phantom she'd manifested to threaten him. Thankfully, he'd been too terrified to notice how feeble her manifestation truly was.

"It isn't much," she whispered after the coughing finally subsided. "But as long as I have some strength left, spending it to cover Ling'er is worth the pain." Thankfully, this time, the exertion was small. Within a few days, she'd be recovered enough to repeat tonight's action if she needed to. For now, however, she would have to depend on her son and his sworn sister to handle anything else that occurred.

Or, perhaps it was time to reach out to her own sworn sister. The sect had kept them apart long enough. If she couldn't do anything to help Wu Ling, perhaps her sister could…

komentar 2 komentar

Pilih

KIRIM HADIAH

Load failed, please RETRY