Hui Ming

The red wave separated me from my attackers. The shell took the power rod blasts in my place. I climbed out of the broken shell and glanced around. The wave had scattered Dao’s men all over the place. They turned their attention to Jing.

She put her hand on a long tube beside her. It was many cannon segments stacked on top of each other.

A bulb appeared in her right hand. Similar bulbs dotted my master’s garden, but I never learned what they were for. She inserted it into the tube.

A sound like a crack of thunder. The bulb shot out the other end. It hit one of the men from Dao’s group and exploded in a cloud of fire and smoke. A film of distorted air traveled out. Gusts swept up the shattered buildings. The blast unearthed boulders and sent them into the air. I put my arms in front of my face. The distorted air and shrapnel pounded against me and the boom rang through my ears.

But Jing wasn’t done. Vines flew out of the vehicle and wrapped around the tube. They tilted it to the side and stabilized it. She flashed me a smile and put another bulb into the tube.

Explosions rained down. Shockwaves overlapped and spread outward. I put the shell in front of me to weather the storm. The center of fire must’ve been hell.

Jing aimed every blast. Another round of shots shot down the ones trying to run. The explosions stopped.

Had she run out of bulbs? I peered over the shell. A compartment opened beneath Jing. Vines stretched down and pulled out three more racks of bulbs… how many did she have?

The earth rattled from each blast. The constant fire turned into an earthquake. Even structures outside the blast radius collapsed one after the other. The blasts turned the space into a wasteland.

A tower of gold emerged from nowhere, forming a glowing yellow pillar. At the middle of the pillar was a golden sword.

The pillar fell, slowly at first, but faster it approached the ground. It smashed against a bulb, which detonated against its side. The pillar of light trembled and flickered, but held. It pinned the explosion to the ground, muffling the explosion.

I remember this person! My sect taught us about all the famous people in the Grand Flames City. This man was Gong Ping, a famous expert from two generations ago. Sectless but talented, he had risen to the top ranks of public superpowers. He championed his own unique brand of justice. He protected those who needed protection and stood up to oppressive sects.

Nobody could ignore him after he single handedly destroyed a sect. He became less active over time and later disappeared. This was sixty years ago, but he looked as young as ever. Somehow, Dao had convinced this monster to follow him.

A different sword flew under Gong Ping's feet and lifted him. He stood with his feet on the flat side of the blade. He lifted his own sword and an even larger pillar appeared. It shrunk until it was “only” the size of a normal house. The blade at his feet flew him at Jing. Knowing he would dodge, Jing didn’t aim her cannon at him. She continued her assault on the rest of Dao’s men.

I dropped the shell and began gathering Qi. I tapped my feet against the ground five times. A wind stirred over me and I launched in Jing’s direction. My feet smashed the land to pieces, launching me forward. Heat poured out of my skin, lighting the air on fire. I became a fiery bullet and shot at Jing.

Jing’s attacks reduced their fifteen member team to four. The hammer wielder, spearman, and everybody else had been annihilated. The woman who had knocked me out of the sky was lying in a pile of rubble, struggling to nurse her wounds. The rest were not faring much better.

Master Jin was not joking when he said Jing was more powerful than me. I never expected it was to this extent.

She launched a string of bulbs at a woman wielding a metal staff. She gripped one end of her staff with both hands. She pulled it back and smashed it against the first bulb. It detonated. The force of a seventh stage cultivator’s full force swing fought against the force from the blast. They were stuck in a deadlock. A ring shaped shockwave flew from between the staff and explosion.

Her hands trembled, not believing how powerful the explosion had been. She looked sideways to see another bulb heading her way. She moved her staff up to block but her hands were still weak. She dodged and pushed her staff against the side of the bulb. She finished her swing, deflecting the explosion to the side.

Her overwhelming Qi shrunk to a ghost of what it had been before. She struggled to deflect the third one and was still forced back a couple steps. It wasn’t obvious, but her steps diverted most of the force into the ground. Her arms sagged to her waist.

She glanced at her previously invincible comrades. Her eyes went back to the fourth bulb heading her way. She lifted her shaking arms. The bulb slammed into her chest and her staff lurched out of her hands. The explosion created a two story crater. She lie at the center, blood dribbled out the side of her mouth.

I swallowed.

A seventh stage cultivator, defeated in less than five seconds. No wonder Jing crushed Dao’s team so quickly.

The tube readjusted, aiming its head at the only person left in their group other than Dao and Gong Ping. But before she could do anything, a huge gold tower came down on her green vehicle. It was slow, but it came with the force of a falling mountain.

It was like an arrow shot from heavens. The tip of the tower collided with the top of Jing’s cart. Her cannon fell apart into fifteen segments. The rest of the cart held together, but Gong Ping's golden tower held an indomitable momentum.

After hiding for decades, this was his debut. He stood in the middle of his semi transparent tower. Surrounded by golden light, he looked like a god.

His pillar continued down without slowing. Jing’s wagon held. More than a hundred men ran out like a bunch of uncovered cockroaches. Jing stayed, controlling vines to counter his push.

It seemed as though Jing was resisting the push, but I could see what was really happening from afar. Jing’s entire cart was being pushed into the ground. It didn’t matter how sturdy the cart was, or how much she pushed back. She would be buried either way.

I slid into Jing's cart. I glanced at the crushed mass above us.

“You can't stop that thing! Let’s go.” I grabbed her arm and tried to pull her with me. She didn't budge.

She pulled me back and crushed a yellow box. Twenty tentacles stuck to the sides of a disc wrapped around me and restrained me. “What the!”

My heart chilled.

Master Jin mentioned not knowing what Jing was up to. He had even told me to keep watch over her. Did Jing betray us? No. That's impossible. But if she wanted to keep me here, why didn’t she tell me?

The golden energy washed over us, further suppressing my movement. Jing frowned and brought me down into the cart.

The inside of the cart wasn’t just one room, but a multi-story interior with hallways and many rooms. I should have realized it from the outside, but her “cart” was huge. It was more like a moving castle. She tore a hole in the floor and jumped down. The tentacles holding me followed, pulling me along.

The cart contained multiple stories. I heard the top floor crumple and collapse. Gong Ping's tower was crushing the cart floor by floor.

We traveled four stories down, hitting the bottom floor. “Why are you holding me? Let go!”

She didn’t answer. The pillar pushed her entire wagon underground. We were deep beneath the earth’s surface, and the pillar was still pushing us down.

Jing closed her eyes and waited.

Whatever Jing had built couldn’t be called a wagon or a cart, but I couldn’t find any other words to describe it. It was almost like a moving castle. Small glowing rocks covered its interior. A hallway connected at least ten rooms on each floor.

After a few long seconds, Jing opened a hole in the side of her cart. She leaped through with me in tow. Since we were underground, I expected to hit a wall

I felt the damp musty air on my face. Every other part of me was under the tentacles. Jing had brought us into an underground tunnel. She still didn’t let me go. A few of the tentacles turned into legs and we ran down the corridor.

I knew about the secret underground tunnel system. It was illegal and nobody used them anymore. But Jing had found it too easily, as if she knew it was down here all along.