章 49: Black Devil Maiden Xiao Yue
Because of the new environment Xiao Yue had been instantly moved to, her first reflex had been to find hiding behind one of the small ruins that covered the area to observe what was going on.
From there she could observe the dozens of disciples fighting in the arena, trampling on what looked like cities and fields from far away.
"A miniature world! These cities are not far away, they are really tiny!"
In fact she herself was located on top of what must have been in the past a big castle. The ruined high walls that currently shielded her weren't taller than a meter, which would translate to at least five stories compared to the size of this dimension.
Even the mountains that closed off this small valley were only about ten meters high and a couple hundred meters apart.
But Xiao Yue didn't spend too long wondering about how this dimension came to be or if it had been inhabited by small humans at some point in time. She had observed the scene for long enough now and had an inkling as to what was going on.
Up above in the small clouds, thunder roared never endingly. In fact it only took a couple of lightning strikes to understand that bolts would strike the central tower whenever a disciple killed another.
At first glance this sub-trial looked completely barbaric but after she witnessed the same disciple being killed then flashing back to life in a random place, Xiao Yue understood that everything happening here was illusory.
"This looks like fun! We can kill each other and practice fighting without actually suffering damages!" she was overjoyed.
The tower central to the arena contrasted highly with the size of the dimension. As if it was hundreds of meters tall, the proud looking building housing the black spear overlooked the ruined cityscape.
On all sides of the tower, spiraling steps could be seen flashing on and off with different colors. In fact there were as many sets of stairs as there were disciples.
Xiao Yue was still observing when she felt a presence behind her. Although she was close to the mountains, she wasn't exactly at the edge of the arena.
An orange robed disciples that looked to be twenty or younger had sprung into existence right behind her!
Almost as soon as the young man spotted her, he attacked mercilessly with a battle cry through his clenched teeth.
Xiao Yue's divine sense didn't have the time to completely register the disciple when her sharp reflexes took over.
The sword she took out with a slap to her bag of holding was of course the good-grade treasure she had come across previously. The same sword that had been embedded in the cranium of an Ice Winged Serpent that three red robed disciples fought together before of of them betrayed the others.
This weapon was the best she had at her disposal by far, and her mastery over it proved worthy of a fine blade.
Without thinking twice, Xiao Yue spun on her feet, slicing the approaching orange robed disciple with ease. The moment the blade exited the young man's body, thunder roared, and a lilac colored lightning bolt struck the black spear on top of the center tower.
The next instant, a lilac step had appeared at the bottom of the tower, next to all the other colored assortments of stairs.
"Ooooooh, I get it! Each strike gets you a step" she realized the point of the sub-trial. "Then... if I get enough kills it will reach the top and the treasure will be mine!"
Looking at the sword in her hand and probing the tower, Xiao Yue immediately knew that the menacing black spear was in a completely different league.
It was at this moment that her eyes started burning with a strange passion, a passion that would only be extinguished when she attained her new goal.
Most of the disciples participating in the trial were orange robed, although a third of them were red robes lucky enough to have reached the icy tundra this fast. None but a couple of cultivators she recognized could really pose a problem to her it seemed.
Xiao Yue came out of hiding, but in the confusion of the fight between a few dozen parties, not one person turned to her.
"They are all already fighting... Then I just have to join the battle!"
As it turned out, the first opponent Xiao Yue met was the guy she had already cut down once.
"This time, you are going to die, trash!", the fool uttered, seeking revenge before Xiao Yue impaled him with a smile.
"Trash? Seriously?" she replied right as the man was being teleported elsewhere.
Leaping into action, Xiao Yue then proceeded to take down two disciples fighting each other in one fell swoop by surprise.
The thunder roared twice more, the lilac steps on the tower now numbering four. There seemed to be at least a hundred more steps before it reached the top.
What happened next could only be described as barbaric domination.
Slowly at first, Xiao Yue reached twenty steps. As it turned out, each time a disciple would die, their own sets of stairs would lose one step. This way in order to reach the black spear, the victorious had to not only kill a lot of the others but limit their own amount of deaths.
After reaching her fiftieth step, Xiao Yue saw that most of the disciples present didn't even have a single step of their color remaining.
It was then that she chose to call in a loud Shinsoo-enhanced voice to everybody to fight her.
A few of the disciples entranced by the trial hadn't noticed her progression yet, but the number of lilac steps as well as her outrageous provocation made their blood flow in reverse.
Between steps fifty and ninety, Xiao Yue was surrounded at all times by her own volition and yet not once did she lose her life. Her sword spun around again and again, mercilessly taking down anyone in her path.
The total carnage she had brought with her didn't stop for another twenty steps.
By this point all the disciples had given up, most of them dispirited enough to want anxiously to leave the sub-trial and return to their bodies in front of the black monolith in the icy tundra.
Some of them were even crying a little.
Even Xiao Yue herself had become bored at some point. If nobody wanted to fight her, then what was the point? Where was the fun in that?!
Some disciples were sitting cross legged in the middle of the arena, simply waiting for Xiao Yue to slaughter them.
Xiao Yue had been dragging her sword on the ground for a while, not bothering with a fighting stance before slicing people.
It was upon reaching the hundred and tenth step that one of the disciples jumped at her furiously, trying to score at least a point from her before her win.
In the end, Xiao Yue had finished the trial with a hundred and eleven kills and not a single death.
The black spear that was repeatedly struck by lightning descended into her hand, dousing her in a black light that made her look terrifying.
The next instant, all the disciples found themselves back into their own bodies right as the black monolith crumbled into fine black dust.
Xiao Yue was standing in the middle of them, the Black Devil Spear in hand, a bit hazy. Black smoke seemed to rise up from the entire length of the spear, catching all the surrounding light.
The look of the orange robed girl was since then etched into their memories forever, as well as the nickname Black Devil Maiden Xiao Yue.
It was unknown who called her that at first, but she heard their cries as they flew away from her upon being teleported back in the ice tundra.
Now Xiao Yue was roaming the tunnels of the ancient maze, the name Black Devil Maiden echoing after each of her encounters with another disciple.
***
Right as Xiao Yue was lamenting her loneliness and whishing for her sister Shin Sumi to reunite with her soon, the latter was opening her eyes, a few levels below in front of the green Vein of Hell Fire.
As her consciousness left its meditative state out of time and space, Shin Sumi instantly probed herself by reflex. Her body now seemed to be glowing from the interior as her divine sense roamed around her meridians and Shinsoo openings.
The number of Shinsoo doors unclogged had risen up from fifty-two to fifty eight!
"Only six more to go and two veins left" she thought as she stretched lightly.
With every of her movements, Shin Sumi felt the power of her muscles almost rumbling, brimming with raw strength. Her silhouette was as slender as always but she had made quite a leap in strength as she had absorbed unknown quantities of pure Shinsoo energy.
If before absorbing a Vein she felt like a piece of coal, now she was more akin to a diamond, refined and pure.
Her mind was suddenly struck by the feeling of being watched. Shin Sumi turned around sharply, calling the now tame Gold Tyrant Flying Sword to her hand in an instant.
Not ten meters from her was a Blood Wolf. Of course Shin Sumi remembered the single wolf that had followed her all the way to the Vein of Hell Fire. Out of weapons and ideas, she had only been saved by the presence of the strong pressure from the Vein that had allowed her to put some distance between her and the beast.
But now she couldn't believe her eyes!
"Is that really the same Blood Wolf ??!"
The beast that was looking at her had at least tripled in size! It's fur that was once black with red streaks now also showed hints of silver linings.
The claws that had been like daggers were now short swords that gleamed with a greenish glow.
Upon watching Shin Sumi get up, the wolf shot back a couple meters. It had lost its bloodthirsty air and its eyes didn't show even an ounce of the madness they once contained.
The wolf howled softly, scratching the ground at the same time.
Somehow Shin Sumi saw profound intelligence in the black pupils in front of her. Slowly she lowered her sword and stepped sideways.
Assured that they were not going to attack each other, the wolf sat down and nuzzled its snout between its hind legs, closing its eyes.
"So I'm not the only one who benefitted from the Vein of Hell Fire, eh?"
A light probing answered her question. The wolf radiated strength in much the same way as herself. It had gone from a red core beast, a low level Shinsoo Gathering creature to a late stage green core!
For a second Shin Sumi wondered if its core could be updated to a blue core through the refinement process of the little nut, but a worried stare from the Blood Wolf at the same moment made her forget the idea.
"The Blood Wolf won't attack me now" she knew, "wait, this isn't right, it should be a Silver Blood Wolf now!"
In fact the grey streaks didn't lie, Shin Sumi recognized the mutated species from one of the books Xiao Yue had shown her once.
The powerful beast twice as big as herself suddenly looked up, sniffing the air. With lightning speed, the hunter ran to a wall of the large cavern before coming back to the same spot carrying a big rat in its jaws.
Shin Sumi watched the Silver Blood Wolf eat with a mix of disgust and interest.
"It seems like even its smell has been enhanced..."
As if it was understanding her human words perfectly, the wolf growled affirmatively.
Stretching its legs, the wolf roamed about in the cave for a couple of hours while Shin Sumi stabilized her new powers and made sure her cultivation base was firm. The whole time she kept an eye on the wolf from afar.
It soon looked pretty evident that the wolf had finished its absorption a long time before Shin Sumi. The way it knew the cave system was an indication to that.
"Could it be that you've stayed all this time around here for me?" she asked the wolf.
Although it was a ferocious beast in nature, the Silver Blood Wolf nodded proudly like a pet dog.
"You have toured the cave a lot haven't you?"
Another intelligent nod.
"Do you know the way out of here? Some path to reach one of the tunnels?"
The wolf looked confused for a moment before it understood what Shin Sumi meant.
With the sheer size of the wolf, it was evident that it could not fit through the passage they had both used to arrive to the Vein of Hell Fire anymore.
The wolf seemed genuinely happy to see Shin Sumi follow as it lead her to a small but large enough passage carved into the walls. Contrary to the caverns in this part of the maze that seemed to have come about naturally, this one tunnel was obviously man made.
Runes and strange characters covered the walls in patterns that Shin Sumi could not understand. She slowed down enough to imprint on her memory the stone writings, the Silver Blood Wolf patiently waiting for her.
Shin Sumi felt that the magical runes served as a way to prevent the aura of the Vein of Hell Fire to spread from the cave it was in because as soon as she and her companion wolf passed the tunnel she could no longer feel it.
The Silver Blood Wolf looked disoriented for a moment but stuck close to Shin Sumi. Having absorbed most of the Vein of Hell Fire, she now beared it's aura slightly.
"Maybe that is why the wolf is now friendly" she thought with no way to confirm or infirm her theory.
The path was now in a slight upwards slope, probably leading to the main levels of the maze and Shin Sumi took advantage of the calm and solemn atmosphere to observe her sword before going back to the chaos and danger of the Rising Star Tournament.
The Gold Tyrant Flying Sword had gone through unprecedented changes once again. When Shin Sumi remembered the appearance of the sword when she obtained it at first, she would barely admit that they were one and the same.
The golden sword was a marvel of beauty and grace, nothing like its name indicated. The blade was so thin that it looks able to cut the wing of a fly by the width! Besides retaining its golden color, the sword was almost translucent.
Even the handle that Shin Sumi had carved clumsily out of the spine of a Stone Leaf Tortoise had benefited from the refining process of the veins.
Elegant designs ran from the pommel to the hilt of the sword and the whole fit Shin Sumi's hand perfectly.
The Gold Tyrant Flying Sword was different from other cultivator weapons in that for each of its owners, the sword almost reverted completely back to its blank state.
Fen Wudao's sword had obviously been refined by himself and was on a whole other level, but when he had passed it down to her, the thing could not even be called a sword anymore.
It was a heap of dark yellow metal, too dull to cut down anything. And now that Shin Sumi was gradually enhancing it, the sword didn't look like it would revert to the state it had when Fen Wudao held it.
The sword was adapting to its master. Shin Sumi was a girl, her natural aura brimmed with gentle Yin type Shinsoo, whereas Fen Wudao's Shinsoo was of the fierce Yang type. Hence his version of the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword had been mighty and imposing.
"I bet I am the first woman to hold mastership of this sword. This is far from tyranny but more like a slick and thin feather."
She remembered the multiple times the sword had acted on its own, too interested by the proximity of a Vein of Hell Fire to hear her mental orders.
She squinted suspiciously "or is the sword the tyrant after all..."
For now though, the sword seemed to behave as Shin Sumi arrived close to the end of the tunnel.
Next to her, the Silver Blood Wolf was now unwilling to go much further.
Shin Sumi stopped and called the beast, kind of wishing she could take it with her. Imagine her returning to the battlefield on a ferocious silver mount!
But she of course had to give up the idea.
"You want to return to the Vein, don't you? And maybe go back to your family after, hmn? I don't blame you. Family is important, don't escape like I did never to return. But at least I kind of have a different family now... Yue, Lan Hui, Bai Xuengen... I guess they are the closest I have to a family."
Sensing her mixed feelings but unable to fully comprehend it, the Silver Blood Wolf nuzzled against Shin Sumi for a few moments.
Shin Sumi even felt a tug at her divine sense, as if the wolf wanted to wrap its spirit against hers. At a loss, Shin Sumi allowed it to intertwine their divine senses.
"This... are you bonding with me?"
The link was similar in a way to what had formed between Shin Sumi and the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword, or the Copper Bell, although different.
Like sharing identification jade imprints between disciples, the wolf was forming a link between the two.
When the process finished, the beast stood proudly in front of Shin Sumi, yapping one last time before running off in the distance back towards the green Vein of Hell Fire. The silver streak died in the darkness, leaving Shin Sumi with an unexpected sadness.
"Thank you for the good time, little wolf. I'm going back to where I'm supposed to be now. If one day I can, I'll take you with me to the Dark Sky Starry Sect!"
The effects of the last Confusion Pill had dissipated while she had been absorbing pure Shinsoo, so she popped a new one into her mouth.
Her face turned into Bai Fulong's again as she went exploring once more in hope to find the exit of the maze.
She only stopped fully two hours later when the corridor in front of her exuded a dangerous feeling. A dark mass of smoke denser than any shadows obscured her vision, even with the Copper Bell at her side.
But what made her stop was not the darkness rather than the presence she could feel through it.
"Yue-Erm... Xiao Yue?"
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