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Chapter 137 – First Blood
🕑 Added 2024-11-16 03:58:42 +0000 UTCYe Zan stared over the village wall at the forest surrounding it. There was no sign of any beasts yet. Not that he expected to see any. Master had said it would be at least two hours before the first ones arrived and that was almost an hour ago.
Villagers and sect members were still slowly making their way to their assigned positions. Which frustrated Ye Zan more than a little. He got that most of them weren’t any type of soldier, but he would have preferred to have everyone rush to their spots.
Master had ordered that there be no sense of urgency, though. Instead, he wanted a calm and organized stream of people taking their positions. It was a marathon, not a sprint.
Of course, none of them had any idea what a marathon was, but the meaning was easy to guess from the context. The tide would not last minutes or even hours, but days.
All their plans took that timeline into account. The personnel were all arranged in shifts. Manning the wall outside of when one was designated to do so was subject to punishment. Additionally, the twins and Senior Sister Kang Lin were not allowed to do so much as launch a single attack on any creature lower than rank four unless it was to directly save someone’s life.
Every person in a leadership position was to exude confidence and admonish those around them to keep calm and do their job. The message for the troops was that, if everyone pulled together, there was nothing to worry about.
Ye Zan was having a hard time believing that idea. He’d heard tales of beast tides but not firsthand accounts because he’d never met anyone who’d survived. Instead, he’d heard stories from those whose friends had died in one.
Of course, before meeting Master, Ye Zan hadn’t spent much time around cultivators. He suspected that the survivability of a mortal during such an event differed greatly from even a low ranked Qi Gathering practitioner.
Turning his attention to the plaza, he saw that Jin LiJuan had arrived. He hopped down to make sure she was doing okay.
She cupped her hands when she saw him. “Greetings, Senior Brother.”
After returning her greeting, he said, “Do you have any questions or need anything, Junior Sister? Master has given you an important responsibility.”
At least, Ye Zan hoped feeding coins to the barrier was an important responsibility. If it turned out not to be one, that meant the shield didn’t work, and that they were all likely to die sooner rather than later.
“No questions, Senior Brother. I will do my duty no matter what.”
The intensity of the girl’s response was enough that he believed her determination.
Ye Zan had asked around about her and discovered that, not only had she been orphaned by spirit beasts, but she’d watched it happen and come close to dying herself. He couldn’t even imagine what experiencing such an event must have done to the child.
He glanced at the coin slot Master had commissioned for the barrier. Five full spirit coins rested on it. The one resting atop the core hadn’t been drained at all yet.
Not for the first time, Ye Zan wished they had been able to capture a spirit beast to throw at the shield. Pretty much their entire defense rested on the barrier working, and it had never even been tested.
Well, they’d find out one way or the other in about an hour.
He sighed. Master had created it, though, and it was hard to imagine Master failing at anything.
Despite that confidence, doubt lingered. It was hard to trust fully when lives were on the line.
“You have all your coins?” he said.
Jin LiJuan patted a bag tied to her waist.
“Good,” he said. “I assigned Huang Yimun to protect you, and once he heard about how crucial your job is, Pan Jiang volunteered to help as well. So, you’ve got a sword and a spear focused solely on making sure you’re safe. Additionally, every person nearby knows to defend you ahead of anything or anyone else, and I will personally guard your mission with my life.”
“Gratitude, Senior Brother.”
Having assured himself that the girl was ready, he moved on to his next task. Somehow, he’d ended up in overall command of the entire defense even though a few of the village guards were much more experienced and Guang Yin had been a cultivator longer than Ye Zan had been alive. Regardless of ill equipped he felt for the position, he would perform it to the best of his ability.
It was important for a commander to be seen by the troops before an imminent battle, so he began making a loop around the inside of the wall, checking preparations. The sect’s three Foundation Establishment cultivators were spread out equidistant from each other with strict instructions on where and how to respond if the gong or whistles were used. Likewise, Master’s special arrows were in the hands of scores of archers who understood exactly how they were to be used.
The attitude of the troops was a mixture of much excitement and a little nervousness. Which was much better than Ye Zan had expected. He supposed that everyone’s supreme confidence in Master’s ability to pull them through any situation blunted their concerns about what they were about to face.
Well, their confidence in Master combined with a startling ignorance for what was about to happen blunted potential concerns, anyway.
Honestly, if even half the people inside the village lived to see another day, Ye Zan would count it as a win.
Of course, if the barrier worked as it should and it didn’t drain so much qi that they ran out of coins, his estimate would probably turn out to be quite pessimistic. There was no way to know in advance, however.
Better to be prepared for the worst and have the best occur than the other way around.
As he slowly circled the inside of the village, he made sure to call out to people he knew and offer encouraging words to those he didn’t. One of the old soldiers he’d met had stressed the importance of morale and how such small gestures like a normal, friendly interaction could have a huge positive impact.
The man Ye Zan encouraged this morning might be the man who saved his life in the evening.
He stopped for a few minutes to chat with Yang Ru or, at least, to chat at the taciturn young man before moving on, doing the same with Yang Xiu and, more awkwardly, with Kang Lin, who Ye Zan didn’t know very well.
By the time he made it back to the gate, most of the hour had blown past. He took his position on the allure and watched for any sign of beasts.
He didn’t have to wait long.
Not ten minutes later, Master appeared next to Ye Zan, stepping from nowhere to land on the small wood walkway.
“Can you see the bushes moving in the distance?” Master said.
Ye Zan shook his head.
“There getting close, thousands of rank ones. My guess is they’ll spread out and surround the village. If they do, keep the current plan. If not, we can call more reinforcements to the gate and just leave a skeleton crew elsewhere.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Few of our archers will be able to hit with each arrow, much less kill with each. We’ve discussed how important it is to conserve ammunition. Do you have any concerns on that front?”
“No, Master. My men are spread out around the wall, and their first job is making sure that the archers wait until spirit beasts are in range and aim carefully before loosing.”
“Good.”
Master’s eyes moved up toward the sky. “Ah. Perfect.”
“What is it, Master?”
“A rank one bird—a hawk, I believe—jumping the gun a bit.”
“I’ll have our best archer shoot it out of the sky, Master!”
“Why would you do that?”
Ye Zan was flummoxed by the question. “Because we’re supposed to kill the spirit beasts, aren’t we, Master?”
“Okay. There is that. But I thought you wanted to test the shield?”
Ye Zan felt like an idiot. Of course, a single rank one flying beast would be the perfect test.
“Bird incoming!” he yelled. “Bird incoming. Stand down! Stand down. Let it impact the barrier.”
There were close to five hundred people taking the first shift guarding the wall, and about forty of them were close enough to the gate to watch. At least eighty eyes were glued to the feathered menace as it approached.
Closer and closer it flew, and soon, even Ye Zan’s relatively unenhanced eyes made out details of the approaching creature. With a wingspan of eight or nine feet, it wasn’t much bigger than a mortal hawk. Honestly, at least half the people stationed near the gate would have no problems killing it one on one.
Like Master said, it was the perfect test. Even if it crashed through the barrier, the guards would make quick work of it.
Ye Zan wasn’t worried at all until the precise moment it took aim at Jin LiJuan. “Master…”
“That bag of spirit coins is a more tempting target than anyone here. After the test, I’ll have her leave it on the ground nearby instead of tying it to her waist.”
“Shouldn’t we protect her, Master? She’s not exactly a fighter.”
“One, she’ll be fine with just the shield protecting her. Two, let’s assume the bird penetrates like there’s nothing blocking it but air. Do you really think I’m not fast enough to kill it before it gets to her?”
Since becoming a cultivator, Ye Zan’s physical abilities had increased with each minor realm of Spiritual and Body Cultivation. He was faster, stronger, and tougher than any mortal could possibly be, able to react to attacks in a tiny fraction of a second.
Senior Brother Yang Ru was even more impressive. The things that young man could do were truly superhuman.
Nothing anyone in the village could do could begin to compare with Master, though. In the heat of the moment, Ye Zan had forgotten that fact.
“No, Master. Apologies, Master.”
The bird began its descent, heading straight for Jin LiJuan. The girl watched it, unmoving and apparently not scared at all. If anything, she seemed mad that it would dare attack her.
Ye Zan shivered. That girl was too intense.
Down, down, down, the hawk swooped, its claws spread and ready to snatch the little girl up.
Until suddenly, the bird was no longer descending.
A patch of air above the village glowed brown for an instant, and the bird bounced back, stunned. It fell to the ground outside the wall.
“Pan Jiang,” Master called. “If you can jump quickly enough, you get first blood.”
The boy’s eyes lit up. He leaped over the wall and landed lightly on the other side. A swipe of his sword decapitated the hawk.
As the boy snatched up the body, Ye Zan wondered about the choice to have the Poison Claw Sect member make the kill. It was probably because of complex political considerations. An allied sect had sent reinforcements. Best to keep them happy.
Smart.
Pan Jiang leaped back over the wall and landed next to Jin LiJuan.
Ye Zan and Master hopped down next to them. The spirit coin next to the core had a barely perceptible sliver missing from its bottom but was otherwise intact. Really barely perceptible. If Ye Zan hadn’t been looking at it closely, he wouldn’t have realized any of it was missing.
“Well, let’s see how we did,” Master said. “Detects and prevents entry from spirit beasts—check. Minimal qi usage—check. I’d say it works.”
“Agreed, Master,” Ye Zan said. “Gratitude.”
Now, if only the rest of the beast tide would go as well, maybe they’d all make it through alive.
Comments
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
jean
so im guessing when he hits the next realm its about raising a certain number of people to certain realms to unluck more of the system instead of just increase the sect we need quality not only mass of people :P great chap :)
CentrisAce
tftc, this is gonna be hype!
richard C bond
Barrier tested! I love this pacing, can't wait to see what happens next. :)
