Legend of The Young Master

Chapter 205: Discussion

The Pavilion Mistress slammed her stick on the floor. "Young Master. Old man. Surely you don't believe that we have to raise the siege ourselves?" She looked at Wuyi. "Don't you believe that Master Li Zhang from the Lotus Order of Tianqin Kingdom is coming? The king?"

Xilai didn't turn to face her. "The king—" he said. He shrugged. Wuyi smiled at her. "Lady, I believe the king is a day or two away. But I believe that the essence of a good defense—whether my opponent is a tribe of barbarians, a feudal lord, or a legendary immortal, is a good offense planned to keep my opponent off balance.

Let me tell you of the next two days." He grimaced—for the first time, the others saw the fatigue under his banter. "Let me guess at the next two days," he said.

"Tonight, the enemy will cross the fields in force and endeavor to cut us off from Bridge Castle in two ways. He'll try to occupy the trench we built, and he'll seek to destroy our ballistas." He looked at Xilai. "He'll try it directly. With powerful workings overloading the array defenses of the walls."

Xilai nodded emphatically. "His purpose is so that he can storm Bridge Castle. He is only interested in taking it now because the king is on the south bank of the Qinglian River. As long as we hold the Bridge, we have the ability to end the siege in an afternoon."

"You don't know that," Yun Ming said.

"Sometimes," Wuyi said, looking at the old man, "You know a thing to be true, whatever the evidence. Our enemy is not that good at war. In fact, he's learning to lay a siege from us, as we hurt him. He learned, perhaps three days ago, that the king was coming along the south bank. I'm guessing based on the tempo of his attacks." He shrugged.

Yun Ming shook his head. "If you are wrong—"

Wuyi sighed. He knew how his members were becoming so doubtful he knew the cause too. It was not time for him to face that enemy. If someone could try to attack his sacred chamber consciousness, it was only reasonable that being targeted his members' consciousness too. But now was not the time. Still he decided to keep the being concentrated on him.

The only way to do that was to give him some more challenge. He went to the sacred chamber, and the valor followed him behind to the wall and chanted, "Igne eum, ignis purificet!"

The shadow, like always, outside his consciousness was waiting. Suddenly, there was a flare of massive fire that attacked the shadow. The shadow, never expecting such an attack, was caught off guard and retreated. Still, some of the fire caught him.

The shadow roared, but Wuyi was faster. "Firmare, firmare, vires augere!" The wall became thicker and thicker. The shadow being tried to attack but couldn't do anything. The chamber shook a bit, but Wuyi was habitual to the attacks of this shadow being now.

Wuyi came back to reality. He had these people to convince still, he slammed his fist on the table. "When, exactly, have I been wrong? I've done a pretty damn good job here, and we've gone from victory to victory—even when we stumble. We're still standing, at odds of twenty to one." He looked around. "Our warriors groups are full.

Our casualties are acceptable. At this rate, if the worst happens," he realized he was being passionate to sway them, but his words were tumbling out, "then we'll lose the ballistas tonight, but it will be four more days before he storms Bridge Castle. It will cost him a thousand creatures to take it. And he still won't have a chance to take this fortress!"

Shen spoke. "I think you just condemned my group in Bridge Castle to death."

Wuyi shrugged. "I'll go and command Bridge Castle, and you can command here. This is war. We are not losing. Why are any of you considering surrender?"

Yun Ming swallowed heavily.

"Speak!" Wuyi insisted. "Why are you all so silent?"

Liwei said quietly, "Your eyes are glowing red."

The Pavilion Mistress snorted. "Every young man would have glowing red eyes, if they only could." She got up. "But I agree with you wholeheartedly, Young Master. We will have no more talk of truce, surrender, or accommodation. The demonic wild will kill us if they penetrate these walls." She raised her staff. She appeared to grow.

Not taller, nor more beautiful, nor younger, yet in that moment, she surpassed them all. "Do not falter, my friends." Her smile radiated the warmth of the sun. "We, as mere humans on the righteous path, are strongest when we stand together. United, we can resist. Alone, we are only as strong as our weakest link."

She diminished and sat. Xilai sat silent.

Shen leaned forward. "Young Master," he said.

"Yes?"

"I agree. He'll go for us next. Bolster the bridge castle group. Give me fresh warriors and more archers, and I'll hold it a week." He nodded.

Wuyi subsided into his seat. "Excellent thought. Take them tonight, when you go back—as soon as ever you can."

Xilai shook his head. "I still think he is too intelligent for all of us, even if we could all attack with our skills together." He rolled his shoulders like a wrestler preparing for a match. "But I'm game. And I admit that Young Master has a point. We don't have to defeat him, only make it look as if he can be beaten."

The Pavilion Mistress smiled. "Well said. This is the kind of company I love. Let dinner be served."

The dinner was not rich. There was no roast duck, no gilded pheasants, no bird's nest soup. Duels between ballistas and stone throwers had killed a dozen sheep on the ridge, so every group in the fortress was eating mutton, and they were no exception. The steamed buns filled with spiced venison were superb, though, and the wines were as ancient as the human possession of the fortress.

The conversation was slow to start, but by the second cup of wine, Feiru was amused by Baijian's ribald story, and Wuli Yuan roared with laughter at the tale of the apprentice and the hornsmith's wife. He told one of his own, about a demonic monk who disgraced his vows, and the monk sitting in the corner glared.

The Pavilion Mistress passed wine. She had Wuyi on her right, and Liwei on her left. When the talk had become general, she turned to Wuyi. "You have my permission to engage her in conversation," she said.

Wuyi smiled. "I'm not sure my eyes aren't still glowing," he said.

"Anger and lust are different sins," said the Pavilion Mistress. "Liwei is going to take holy orders, Young Master. You should congratulate her."

"She has my fullest congratulations. She will make a remarkable pavilion lady, and in time, I expect she will make a remarkable Pavilion Mistress." He sipped his wine.

"She is not for you," the Pavilion Mistress said, but without rancor.

"So you keep telling me, while dangling her like a tourney prize." He took a bite of meat.

"I'm right here," Liwei said. He smiled at her.

"Once again, you bite her with your eyes." The Pavilion Mistress shook her head.

After dinner, the Pavilion Mistress held the old man Xilai back. Feiru was surprised to be invited.

"My cultivation growth is very slow as I recently came to learn about cultivation when I came here," she said. "I never even knew—" She shrugged.

Liwei put a hand on the seamstress's shoulder. "I can feel every stitch you sew," she said.

Xilai snorted. "You share a mixing of righteous and demonic," he said. "I should have come to this place years ago to have all my notions of righteousness shattered."

The Pavilion Mistress said, "It is my will that we should stand in a circle, and link our consciousness and after connecting share our power in attacking."

Xilai winced. "I'm granting my secrets to every woman in the room!"

"You have little time for mere women," Liwei snapped at him. "We're too patient in our castings, are we not?"

"Women are all very well for healing," Xilai said.

Liwei raised her head, and a sphere of white-green sat in it. She projected it to a point roughly halfway between herself and Xilai.

"Try me," she said.

Wuyi was surprised by her vehemence.

The Pavilion Mistress, on the other hand, merely smiled a cat's smile. Xilai shrugged and slapped at the sphere with a fist of his Qi. It moved the width of a finger. Then it shot across the room at Xilai. He caught it, struggled with it, and it began to move—slowly, but without pause—back.

"Of course he is stronger than you," the Pavilion Mistress said, and she extinguished the globe with a snap of her fingers. "But not as much stronger as he would have expected. Eh, old man?"

Xilai took a deep breath. "You are most powerful, young lady."