Legend of The Young Master

Chapter 188: Maggots

Wuyi had been sleeping in his armor, his head down on the table in the Central Tower. He woke to the silence, and he was up the ladder in a twinkling, his armor ringing.

Xianyu Ma was already on the battlements. He pointed to the enemy stone throwers—just five li further west. Close enough to touch, or so it seemed.

"Qinujian could reach 'em with an arrow. Or Yuei," Xianyu Ma grinned. "I'm tempted to try, myself."

"Even if you caught one or two," Wuyi said, "there are many, many more of them." He was much more exposed here—they were outside the main defense array of the fortress. He could feel Luding.

He looked around.

The Lower Town's curtain wall was breached in four places.

Wuyi used his consciousness to move towards the fort. "Xilai," he called.

He felt the old man stir. "Well sent. I hear you."

Whenever Wuyi needed to communicate with anyone without speaking, he would use the Statue of Harmony to deliver the message to the person's mind directly. But outside of beasts and his loyal followers, Wuyi rarely used this mode of communication. When old man Xilai came, he realized how much he was missing.

Old man Xilai used mind communication with him, using a skill. He had shared the skill with Wuyi and asked him to learn it too. With the Statue of Knowledge, it did not take much time for Wuyi to master the skill. He had cultivated Zenith Enlightened Mind Arts, which enhanced his mental capability to the highest level a Qi master could achieve.

And as a Qi master with his enhanced mind, his consciousness could cover a good distance but still not far enough to reach the fortress. But when he used the Statue of Harmony, the statue acted as a cell tower, enhancing the reach four times beyond where his consciousness could reach.

Because of this, sitting in the Lower Town Central Tower, Wuyi could communicate with old man Xilai up above in the main fort.

On the other hand, old man Xilai had no words when it came to this young man. Xilai knew Yuanjing were supposed to be talented, but this young man was beyond talented. Everything this old man threw at this young man, he absorbed like a sponge. The old man had started to doubt if this child was heaven's son himself. At first, the old man wanted to be a master to Wuyi, to make him his disciple.

But with the speed Wuyi took in all his knowledge, he might not have anything left to teach this young man. Not to mention that they were under siege and constantly attacked by demonics, yet this young man found time to learn anything Xilai threw at him.

Wuyi concentrated. "There will be an attack on the Lower Town. I need men. Please tell Baijian."

"Your communication reached this far. You are getting stronger."

"I am practicing," sent Wuyi. He went back to watching.

Meiying watched the beams come through the gate. Aixi, one of the attendants, came over to her—hollow-eyed, rubbing his arms—and handed her a note. She looked it over and nodded. She had the day watch formed in the courtyard for inspection, and she found Yuei easily.

"Yuei," she said. "On me."

He stepped out of the ranks.

"Find Wanxie. And any artificers you can rustle up. Master ZhenYing's man is in the merchants' quarters—I think that the carpenter's boy is in the Great Hall. These beams are to form the pivot arm of a ballista—mounted where the ballista was."

Yuei digested this. Nodded. Chewed on some jerky that he had picked up. While he was looking at the tower and Qinujian was inspecting the duty archers, Baijian appeared in his armor. He didn't look like a man who'd been up all night.

"Young Master needs some help. Send reserve warriors, at the double." He nodded.

Yun Ming came along the wall and down the curtain steps. "Hold, Baijian. You all stay. I will go to Young Master."

Baijian's eyes met Meiying's. "Now," he said.

He turned to face Yun Ming. "You can't. You have responsibility for the fort. That is why the message was sent to me, not to you."

Yun Ming frowned. What the hell was Young Master thinking, going alone in Lower Town and now asking for help from these half-wits?

Reserve warriors, as the name suggested, were reserve warriors—half the able men, usually the very best warriors, but today simply half the available troops. Meiying had more than a dozen Qi warriors in the day watch—most of the rest were kept ready for the Expedition Group—led by Sheng Yun, a big, cheerful, ruddy-faced young man.

" Sheng Yun, you have the watch," she said. "I'm taking the reserve warriors. On me!" she called, and the reserve warriors came; sixteen archers and eight Qi warriors. Most of the archers were those who came with merchants she didn't know—with all five of the new recruits—the local boys. Wanxie should have been her master archer, but he was already standing with Yuei.

"Qinujian—you're the senior," she said.

"Like enough," he said.

Yun Ming by the side raised his voice. "You are insane!" he roared at Baijian. Baijian laughed.

Meiying's senior Qi warrior was Shan Xi. He had the others ready to move. Qinujian made a motion with his hand and Yinhai Hu stepped out of the ranks and joined him. They went out the postern.

It was obvious to them all that Yun Ming disagreed with the order to send them. Yun Ming, unlike others, did not always do what Wuyi ordered. He always delivered what was asked of him, but his personality had become stubborn over the years. They all preferred to stay by Young Master's side, but Yun Ming would always steal their opportunities.

When Wuyi made him leader and second in command, they all knew this is how Yun Ming would act. But today, when Young Master sent the message to Baijian instead of Yun Ming, they had an opportunity to be petty.

The reserve warriors had already left the courtyard behind them, and they were out in the light.

Below, on the fields, hundreds—perhaps thousands—of creatures were moving toward the Lower Town. The fields themselves seemed to be moving.

"Good Heavens!" Tianxue Xia one of the warriors muttered.

"Good Heavens." Yinhai Hu spat thoughtfully. " We are not prepared. We will need arrows, a lot of them."

He paused in the postern, leaned back, and shouted, "Dong! Jia!"

He couldn't see Wuyi's attendants.

"Zhen!" he roared. A pavilion elder—tall and pretty despite her hollow eyes—came to the postern.

"May I help?" she asked.

"Young Master's in trouble. Tell Baijian, third in command, we'll need relays of arrows and all the warriors."

She nodded. "I'll tell him."

"See you do, lady," Yinhai Hu sighed, flashed her his best smile, turned, and ran down the long path to catch up with the others.

✶ ✶ ✶

Xilai watched the bustle in the courtyard as he climbed past the two Qi warriors Baijian and Yun ming arguing. He reached the wall—

It was worse than he had thought.

He ran, barefoot, along the wall to the peach tree. Concentrated his Qi power, and raised his staff...

✶ ✶ ✶

Pavilion Mistress watched the reserve warrior group form under her window. There was something particularly well-ordered about the group. Their black cloaks, their bright Qi armor. They made her feel safe even when she knew that she was anything but.

Even as she watched—looking for Wuyi, and missing him, and assigning herself a penance for looking, all in one thought—the woman who wore men's armor shouted an order, and all of the men on the right of the formation turned and followed her.

Then there was suddenly an air of crisis— she saw the men move in many directions. She reached out to the fort array—

Luding was preparing an attack.

She felt well-slept and immensely strong. She walked across the windows on the outer wall, three hundred feet above the fields below, and looked out.

Her fields seethed as if covered in maggots. Her feeling of revulsion was more than physical. A pair of her novices, alerted by her movements, appeared with a cup of warm wine and a robe. She drank the one and shrugged on the other while the older novice brushed her hair.

"Hurry," she said.

She put light shoes on her feet, pulled the mantle of her profession over her robe, and was off while the creatures in the fields below were still merely a tide lapping at the foundations, and not a mighty wave. She collected the the crooked staff that Pavilion Mistress bore by tradition, with a curious green stone head. And then she ran, like a much younger woman, for her bower—her peach tree.

She was shocked to find another there. Not just there, but releasing strong Qi power.

"Master Advisor," she said, coming to a stop.

"Lady Pavilion Mistress," he said. "I'm working."

Even as she paused, he raised his hand. His power was visible. His whole form gave off tendrils of power.