Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 18

High above a little village at an elevation where only the highest clouds soared, a woman in a blue gown stood on nothing. Each strand of her long, blood-red hair wisped about in the violent currents of wind. She was unaffected by such lowly gales, but she allowed her hair to do as it wished.  It was something Syaoran would’ve never allowed. She wasn’t sure if she was doing it out of spite or because she enjoyed it. Perhaps spiting the memory of him was currently the highest joy she could attain. It was still a concept she was coming to terms with. Joy. She was content with peace. Long periods of time without having to succumb to the will of another…

Billi had obeyed Master Zan’s command and followed his son and daughter-in-law at a distance simply to observe them. She assumed he expected her to protect them as well, but he hadn’t said as much. To just watch them. Why? She hated them.

There was hardly a moment that passed that the couple wasn’t disturbingly amused by one thing or another. To be in its purview was unending torment. They laughed and teased, were of one mind in most things, but in the things they different they held interest and respect. Everything about the young couple’s relationship was contrary to the one she’d had with her Syaoran. “‘Her’, Syaoran,” she was about to scream.

Biting hard into her lip, the sudden flow of blood comforted her. As a blood cultivator, blood was one of the few things she understood—she had a grasp of. It wasn’t foreign or painful to look at like the blazing light of the couple she was commissioned to observe.

She didn’t truly hate them. She understood that much. They simply had everything she never had. Family that cared for them with the ability and desire to protect them. Innocent in life, death, relationships, and all manners of perversity. And most of all love. She knew love, for she had it for her sisters and they loved her. It was a distant, pitiable thing, but it was love. Even Syaoran had loved her in the same way a master loves his prized pet. But this Chao and Huifen had a love between a man and woman. She felt she should understand it far better than she did, but what her dead master had done to her was the furthest thing from showing her love.

When the poor veiled woman seeped through the external wall of the inn, it was impossible for Billi to miss such a strange occurrence. She wasn’t simply what this lower world would consider a divine realm cultivator. She had reached the divine spirit realm. All life was vivid to her senses. She saw far more than these lowly creatures could see.

Her perceptions fell like a bolt of lightning, but she kept them under control. Not only were those in the inn left unharmed, but they wouldn’t be able to decern her presence even if she warned them beforehand.

The young man Chao was resting comfortably. The young woman Huifen was sitting at the window with her attention on a card jade, glancing up periodically to take in the view. Billi was confused for only a moment. The vine the veiled woman had left was obvious in its intent. She peered into his body near where the vine lay dormant. Poison had entered his bloodstream. It was already too late. She was not a healer. Though she might have a way to save his life—

There was a tremor in the boy’s qi and his wife sat up at once, glaring back at him.

It shocked Billi to see how sensitive the girl was to her husband’s condition. The tremor had been like the first sign of a failing qi artifact that was running out of energy. She’d observed their dual cultivation practices and realized she shouldn’t be surprised. They were in many ways living qi gathering arrays for one another. No it was more than that. They shared energy with one another daily, even manipulating it together. It was another layer of closeness the two shared that she knew she was jealous of.

Huifen was already across the room looking down at him. She’d found the vines that had burrowed through the blankets and into his arm. The girl’s reaction was so decisive that Billi couldn’t help but gasp. With her husband in her arms and their array formation already put away, Huifen shot out of the room, leveling the outer wall, and flying into the distance.

“Fast…”

Billi watched as the girl circled back the way they’d come after going a few kilometers. It was smart. Better to deal with known terrain then the unknown. She also sensed the girl filling her husband with qi, but not just any qi. It was the nature element. The girl didn’t wait too long to stop and start treating the young man.

The veiled woman was obviously shocked after feeling the large burst of qi. She’d been traveling north off the path at a steady pace. She’d stopped when Huifen had fled. Only after the girl had gained some distance did the woman take to the air and flee in the opposite direction.

Seeing that the Huifen seemed to know what she was doing to treat her husband, Billi gave her full attention to this would-be assassin. She hesitated. Master Zan hadn’t requested she help them in any way. And why should she? She despised them. So why did she feel, anger?

Her hatred of them was a remedial kind. She’d rather have them around to continue hating them. Could that really be called hatred at all?

She looked then toward the fleeing assassin. She didn’t act because it was something Master Zan would expect, or demand. She did it because she wanted to.

An instant later, her hand clasped around the back of the flying veiled-woman’s neck. She ignored the lowly overlord assassin’s violent protest, shrugging off her martial techniques like they were small gusts of wind.

She took to the sky once again to watch the young woman’s desperate attempt to save her young husband’s life. In her other hand, she pulled out her transmission jade to make her report.

Master was coming. She watched the desperate, but apt attempt of the girl to save her husband’s life. She succeeded…

Her chest hurt. She knew this pain. But why did she feel sorrow? The young man would live. She gave them a few minutes to recover before descending to meet them.

She saw their dread when recognizing her. It was a reaction she was used to getting. She felt nothing in response. The assassin continued to struggle in her grasp, so she sent a little burst of blood qi into her, disrupting her cardiovascular system, as well as other things. Now that she had ahold of the woman, there was nothing even an overlord could do. That included using martial techniques if Billi so desired.

She waited, letting them decide what they thought of her presence. She had no idea what Master Zan had told his son and daughter-in-law. After a minute or two, they did seem to calm down. The boy didn’t use his space laws to hide right away. From what she could see of his meridians and dantian, he should’ve had no trouble using his qi. So they must’ve been told something.

Billi had always, always, always been forced to be cruel. As a girl, harming another had been difficult for her. She’d had to either grow callous or break. She had broken first. Her insensitivity came later. It had deadened her to parts of her humanity.

She knew she of her deficiencies even if she didn’t know what to do about them. Tilting her head to the side, she wondered if she should say anything. Instead, she decided to take the attention off her and put it on something else. So she tore the hood off the assassin she held prisoner.

The woman in her grasp hardened like petrified wood. She held the woman up to examine her and was shocked to see someone she recognized.

Taking in the responses of the couple she came to help, she watched their countenance change as they recognized the woman as well. Weapons appeared in their hands.

Billi sighed.

***

Father Zan had told both Chao and Huifen that he’d saved Billi from a wicked family in the divine realm. That family had been an elder from the Divine Fire Phoenix Sect no less. It had been a topic used for an example of many lessons. Seeing the woman here under the exact circumstances did not make their meeting an easy one, however. They’d seen how brutal she could be, and powerful.

Chao was of the mind to say something, except he was still weighed down by the poison that was left in his system. He pulled back from his Huifen so that she could focus entirely on the situation without having to hold him up. He was weak but he felt his strength returning.

As he backed away, Huifen let him go. She didn’t speak but faced off with the wild woman. Seconds turned into minutes, and they continued just standing like that. Chao didn’t understand it. There didn’t seemed to be any challenge or intimidation that passed between them. They just, waited.

From what he could tell, it looked like this divine realm woman had been sent to watch him and his wife by his father, Zan. The women she held was likely the person who poisoned him. He couldn’t help but to feel pity for this blood cultivator. His father had explained to them what a soul lock was and what her life had been like. Hers was a level of servitude he’d only heard about in stories and his lessons.

The Billi woman moved first. Perhaps his Huifen sensed something and her patience with the woman had been the point all along. The veil slipped off the woman’s head.

It felt like he’d been blasted in the gut with dense qi. Chao’s knees start to buckle but he caught himself. His spear was in his hand before he even realized he’d drawn it from his spatial ring. His wife was armed as well.

It was then that he found his voice. It came out faint, so he enhanced its volume with his laws. “What’s the meaning of this?”

He was already whispering a message that quickly arrived at the captured woman’s ear. “Sister Ping, hold on. We’ll get you free.”

The woman’s midnight black hair was back in a tight braid so it didn’t obscure her eyes or the dismal expression she gave him.

His wife said something, but it didn’t register. There was something in Ping’s reaction. It wasn’t hope or the lack of it, but regret.

He began to look at the situation. To really look at what was going on around him. Why was she even here? He remembered their first meeting. He’d faced off with Ping because they were still on edge from the battle just days before. She and Sage Fang had arrived so suddenly. Yet, in the next moment, she seemed jovial and outgoing. She even rejoiced when hearing that Huifen and he were married. It was only in their meeting, after the woman had learn what happened that she’d treated him warily. He’d thought it was because she’d learned about his laws, and what he’d done in the battle, but if it was because of something else…

“Senior Billi,” Huifen said with a commanding tone. “Why are you holding Sage Ping?”

The divine blood cultivator didn’t betray any emotional response, but she finally spoke. “I captured your assassin.”

His wife didn’t know how to respond. She was shaking her head. He could tell she was trying to circulate heart of ice but failing. “No.”

“Huifen,” Chao said, placing his arm on his wife’s shoulder.

She glanced back but her eye immediately returned to what she saw as the true threat. He’d never seen her like this, but he understood it. His wife had never really had peers. Her talent made that almost impossible. Chao was the only one that broke that mold. Ping was the same. The woman’s talent wasn’t at the same heaven defying level, but it was still frightening. It was her nature cultivation that made her a unique friend to Huifen. She was someone she could learn from and was at the same level. His wife didn’t want to lose something so rare. He knew what he had to do.

Chao call out. “Sage Ping, is what Senior Billi says true?”

Huifen glared back at him.

He met her gaze with a sympathetic one, but it was just as unyielding.

He looked past her. There was still a part of him that hoped it wasn’t true. His wife turned as well.

Ping was looking up, but not at them. Her eyes simply drifted in their general direction. She didn’t fight it. She didn’t even try. She nodded her head and cast her gaze to the ground without looking up again.

Some part of him already knew it was true. He felt disappointed, but his Huifen— she remained unmoving. It seemed the part of her that was unwilling to believe, and her reason were battling it out.

Then something inaudible except to Chao’s laws slipped from her mouth. “You tried to kill my husband.”

The cycling of her qi started slowly. Its growth was steady.

He knew what was coming. A tear slipped down his cheek.

Billi dropped the assassin and their supposed friend. Sage Ping landed heavily on the ground. She just sat there on her knees. Her hands were sprawled to the sides lazily. There was no sign she had any intention of defending herself.

His wife’s qi became a tempest inside her. It was like he wasn’t looking at his Huifen at all, but a celestial being trapped inside a glacier of ice. The glacier began to crack. He could almost hear the cracks as they grew. They became larger and more violent. His wife was about to explode.

How could he not remember her recovery? They weren’t days of sorrow, but of rage.  He could picture the valley clearly that she ravaged daily with her qi. He remembered her abusive words to him. He held nothing she said against her, but their memory wasn’t a pleasant one. Revenge had once slipped through her fingers. It was what haunted her the most. It was not a mistake she’d make again.

Chao flew forward. He slipped through her martial stance, placing his hand on her chest and his face close enough where she could see nothing but him.

Her eyes went wide with outrage, but she found herself in the next instant and gave him an insistent glare.

He was far more familiar with anger than his ice fairy who had only gone without heart of ice for a couple years. He didn’t try to persuade her. He kissed her, even as she turned her head away. Then with a push of his qi to her chest, she flew back. It wouldn’t harm her. It was simply something she hadn’t expected.

As he spun to face his would-be murderer, a wall of space cut off his wife from what he was about to do. Facing Sage Ping in her fallen state, he threw his hands forward. The motion wasn’t a quick one. Space flew in the direction of the motion like a canopy, sweeping across the sky to blot it out.

“Chao,” Huifen screamed. There was anger in her voice, but also fear.

Before she could say another word, a long tunnel of space had encapsulated them just as it had him and Prince Rong when he’d tried to kidnap his wife. Except this time, it was just him and the woman who poisoned him.

As weak as his body felt, his features hardened, and he called out to her. “You wanted to kill me, so here I am.” He even lit his spear with golden sky realm fire so that she could see in the lightless tunnel.

She finally looked up. She was confused as she took in all around her. The look she gave him was a dejected one. “Little Brother Chao? Where am I?”