Legend of The Young Master

Chapter 210: Kneel

Wuyi couldn't manage a smile inside his mask. He had control of his head. His job now was to hold Luding's attention as long as he could. Best do a proper job of it.

He reached out with the Statue of Harmony and summoned the nearest creatures of the demonic wild to serve him. He did not want to use it, but he lacked trump cards. He had decided he would avoid using harmony as much as possible because the effect of harmony sometimes backfired out of proportion.

But in this situation, using harmony was the best method to get the most results with a small amount of energy.

To Luding, this dark sun's challenge was contemptuous. He was forcing the swamplings to his will on the other side of the trench. Luding shrieked with rage as if he'd been struck. He threw caution to the wind and leaped the trench of fire.

Wuyi was surrounded by swamplings – a crush of them, and their acrid scent filled his mask. He had never been so close to the creatures, and despite his revulsion for them, he found it impossible not to notice things about them – how their soft shells seemed to be formed like armor, their human arms emerging from breastplates. He was holding them, and all their thoughts were his.

This was what harmony excelled most at. his strongest statue, could easily move the tiny minds. And he began to work on them.

He was in reality and the sacred chamber at the same time. In the chamber, the Statue of Harmony was talking to him.

"The being outside wants to use this specter to help him in attacking your consciousness," the Statue of Harmony communicated.

"Let him try. I am not afraid as long as I don't die," he said, trying to master his terror.

"He will want you to face him in the Aetherial consciousness! You attacked him, he is angry. He will eat your power, you arrogant child!" the Statue of Harmony communicated. "Can't you hear him?"

Wuyi could hear the bellows of being outside his consciousness. "I could use some advice here," he said.

"Don't stand against the powers of the world until you are much, much more powerful," This time it was the Statue of Knowledge that spoke in a matter-of-fact communication. "But when brute force will not suffice, consider artifice. Recall, dear boy, that he will not know the limits of your power. He calls you the dark sun."

Good advice. But he couldn't think of anything he could do with it. He reached for Xilai who was still preparing.

In the real world, Luding was there. He had crossed the trench of fire, and now he stood, smoldering, the acrid smoke around him rising in wisps, and he was backlit by the fire in the trench.

Wuyi sighed. Luding towered over him, and even from a horse length away, Wuyi could see that the sudden shock of the attack had hurt him. Something dark and watery oozed from a deep pit in his breast.

"You thought yourself my peer, you little thing."

Wuyi was fighting the wave of nausea that came with the fear. Whatever Luding was, his coming brought terror, revulsion, a deep, sick feeling of oppression and violation. Wuyi struggled with it.

"You dared to oppose me. Do you know who I am?"

Deep in the grip of horror, Wuyi writhed. His conscious, rational mind registered that only the most unstable beings asked such questions. And he had a lifetime's experience of pretending courage when all he wanted to do was roll into a ball and hide. It was like arguing with Boluo.

Wuyi cast light Qi and healed himself a bit, then he cast shadow and valor Qi, not an attack, but a subtle reinforcement of his armor.

He raised his sword. "Well," he said.

His attempt at a draw actually sounded somewhat hysterical.

"Well," he said again, and his voice was better. He goaded the specter, "I understand you used to be the old King's advisor."

Luding leaned down and one giant, hot bony hand slapped towards Wuyi, but suddenly a warrior in red appeared in the middle and held the blow. The blow in the bony hand contained certain Qi that was equally strong as Valor Qi. Luding scoffed.

"I am infinitely greater than the mere man who was the King's advisor."

Wuyi frowned. The attack was held by the red Daoist, but the power was so strong that it almost blew Wuyi away. But he got back to his feet. Luding was furious; suddenly his size increased more and more. He was massive now and raised his massive hand. Red Daoist Moved and One finger fell away.

Facing a being of this size, Wuyi felt a wild, foolish joy.

"You are just one of the many Powers of the demonic, Luding." He took a deep breath, feeling some pain in himself. "Don't get above yourself, or someone will eat you."

"Good shot," muttered Xilai, who was connected in his conscious space. "Almost ready."

There was a pause, as if the earth stood still.

"Keep him busy," said Xilai.

The red Daoist had retreated and stood between Wuyi and Luding.

"Warrior, you are demonic. You keep challenging me?!"

The red Daoist did not respond. Wuyi dusted his robes that had gotten dirty a bit and straightened as a young master, and said, "You think you are a big shot. You don't really understand how much out of depth you are." He managed another breath and delivered his sentence, like a sword cut. He said, "You are just some parvenu merchant's son trying to ape the manners of his betters."

He ordered the swamplings to kill Luding, and the crowd of swamplings turned their weapons on their former master. Stung – even though none of them could penetrate his bones – he clenched one gnarled fist.

The swamplings died. The specter's rage was automatic rage, unthinking rage at being challenged, at insult piled on insult.

Luding bellowed, "You are nothing!".

The attack faster than the red Daoist could parry, strike – react at all – Luding's fist slammed into him with a large amount of pure dark Qi in the shape of a fist and knocked him, trying to push him to the ground. Wuyi felt the fearsome dark Qi's attack too; he could have escaped, but he still stayed. He knew he could take it; some bones might break, but he was certain he could take it.

He was thrown away; Luding was going all out. As he had guessed, this time Wuyi felt bones break. Collarbone? Ribs, for sure. He had riled this being . For some reason, pride for this being was very important.

Wuyi lay on his back; the Statue of Shadow greedily absorbed the dark Qi. Still, the Qi was so potent that it was taking some time to absorb, and for him, the pain was remarkable. Statues could save him from demonic Qi but not from pain.

He used his stomach muscles to roll over, to get to his feet. There was Luding, standing with the red Daoist still in the middle.

"Why are you not dead?" Luding asked.

"Good armor," Wuyi said.

"Aah! I can see your unique power. I will take it for my own. It is wasted on you. Who are you? You are no different from me."

"I made different choices," Wuyi answered. He had trouble breathing but, just there, he started to feel proud. He was holding a Qi lord-level power almost on his own.

Luding threw another attack; black as the middle of the night, fast as a bolt. The red Daoist parried it to the ground.

"I see now. You are unique. Seems specially bred. Ahh. Fascinating. You are not an ugly mockery after all, dark sun.

You are a clever hybrid."

'Not sure if you are right or wrong, I might be an enemy of the heavens.' Wuyi thought.

He was gaining strength from the sheer dark Qi that the shadow was drinking. This dark Qi felt like despair was reality.

Since the shadow's energy was not running out and only getting stronger, he could escape at any time. He had no worries, except for the specter, which, for some reason, filled him with deep fear. He was determined to conquer this fear as he had done many times before.

"The time of the righteous will be over. Can you not see it? The righteous are failing. The demonic is going to crush the righteous, and before ten thousand suns set, the righteous will be the plaything of the demonic. The righteous have now become complacent; they have lost their strength. They are nothing but a pale shadow of what they once were.

But then, you or your warrior, the demonic Qi doesn't harm you. You are scarcely righteous. Why do you cleave to them?"

Wuyi was achieving calm. Calm meant mastery of the fear. He wondered if the calm that suffused him was artificial, was from the statue, or was it him.

Luding leaned over, blocking half of the stars. "You are ours. Not theirs."

Wuyi laughed. "There is no us, Luding. In the wild, there is only the law of the jungle and the rule of the strongest. And if I join you, I will subsume you to my needs."

Just to make his point, Wuyi projected harmony, the imperative. "Kneel."