Jing

“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” I repeated, as if it’d make my sister’s wounds heal faster.

My sister whimpered in my arms. “Will that be enough?” she asked. Her body was destroyed. Rivers of blood poured off her and soaked my clothes. A warm sensation as the blood touched my skin. I chewed at my inner lip, almost enough to make it bleed.

“Not yet.” My hands shook as I tore off large chunks of her clothes and wrapped them around her wounds. I rummaged through my robes and found one of my father’s Totality Pills. I dropped one into her mouth. She grimaced at the dusty flavor. “Please swallow it,” I pat her forehead.

I picked her up in bridal position and opened the shell. I dashed out. I smelled the soot from my Explosive Bulbs. I ran using the dust as cover.

Information gathering abilities could be difficult to fight against. Some were impossible to fight against.

Figuring out his exact power was also difficult. There were hundreds of types of information abilities. Many of them had nearly identical effects.

The correct way to fight information abilities is to assume they knew everything, then narrow down what they didn’t know. For now, all I knew was that he didn’t know my thoughts. So I assumed he knew everything except for my thoughts.

This was why I didn’t say anything important to my sister. I played it safe by assuming Dao could sense us underground. My suspicions were confirmed when he was able to pinpoint our position underground.

I had a good chance of escaping with Hui Ming, but I decided not to. The Crimson Fire Sect went after my father at the same time Dao attacked my sister. It was too much of a coincidence. They had to be working together. If I escaped, Dao could go back and attack my father. His power would put anybody at a disadvantage.

So I’ll do both. I’ll save my sister and stop him here.

Jing

MP : 2956/7980

Regen : 10.3MP/min

The man with the gold sword could make his energy into a semi-transparent solid and manipulate it. A wall of it stood between myself and my destination. The golden energy had two weaknesses. It was slow and the energy was spread out over a large area. Which meant I could drill through it.

The dust cleared and as I expected, the golden wall loomed before me. The explosions had generated large cracks that reached from one side of the wall to the other. The crack lines pulsed with light as they closed.

I pointed my hand forward. Two seeds shot out my fingertips : Myriad Flame Snake and Drill Attachment One.

Melded, it became a snake with a drill head. I grabbed it by its tail. Its head pierced the wall and the drill went to work. I channeled my mana into the snake with Control.

The drill spun even faster and we charged through the wall. The energy resisted our advance. The golden wall became harder, but not hard enough. We broke out the other side. A golden sword lashed at the snake and cut it in half. I tossed it aside.

We were almost there. I spared no expense on my mana reserves. The gold sword stabbed at us again. A wall of wood appeared between me and his blade. It would take a few seconds for him to take it apart, but that was enough.

Three seeds turned into Cannon Segments. I melded the three segments into one and pointed it at the sky. I climbed into the back end with Hui Ming in my arms.

We shot into the sky. Seeds on my back turned into Wing Attachment One. The wings weren’t very good for flying, but were helpful for gliding.

Vines grew out of my waist and held onto my sister. She groaned softly. Blood soaked through her makeshift bandages.

Her groans grasped my heart and squeezed. My eyes stung, I couldn’t stand seeing her like this. “I’m running out of energy,” I said, “try to hold on a little longer. We’ll find out whether or we die or not soon enough. I can’t keep going for very much longer.”

I said this to my sister, but it was for Dao. In reality, I could countinue running for a long time, but then Dao might give up the chase. If he could hear everything I was saying, my words would stop him from giving up.

I could capture him if he continued chasing.

Stopping somebody that knew everything was impossible. While I assumed he knew everything except my thoughts, this only applied to a certain degree. I still had to bet on him not knowing other things, or I wouldn’t be able to do anything.

I was placing my bets on a certain restriction on his ability : I was betting that he wasn’t able to pay attention to everything at once.

Even if he could sense everything, he couldn’t possibly pay attention to all of it at once. People often miss things that happen in the background. He should only be able to pay attention to a few things at the same time. But one of the points he was sure to be paying attention to was me. I couldn’t do anything sneaky without being noticed.

So how was I supposed to stop him?

I Withered the wings. My feet hit the ground softly and I sprinted off. I was too fast for the people that hopped out of their houses to stop me. But I was slow compared to Dao’s group. I was about as fast as the average fifth stage cultivator.

“Halt!” My skin prickled. It was the feeling of a cultivator flaring their arua. A young girl was blocking my way. I was in the Blue Fire Sect. The only person in the sect that could emit this degree of pressure was Xing Chen Wei.

“Out of the way.” I pointed behind me. The faint auras of ninth stage cultivators became denser. “They’re with Crimson.”

“Why should I belie-” she started. I ran past her.

Planting traps was impossible without being noticed, but what about traps that were already planted? My father had told me about a garden he had planted a long time ago in the Blue Fire Sect. He didn’t have the heart to Wither a month’s worth of hard work, so he put all his plants underground.

More than two months later, the decision he made on a whim would allow me to win. I rolled next to my father’s old home and expended two thousand mana in one go. A twentytacle trap rose at my feet.

I put Hui Ming in a shell and melded it with the Twentytacle Trap. Two cannons formed around my arms.

My feet sank into the plant at my feet, anchoring me to the base. I pointed my arms at the sky and launched a series of Explosive Bulbs.

The bulbs rose into the air and lit it up, cloaking the sky in flames. A field of explosions slowly descended. Tendrils of fire fell like diving hawks.

I smiled. I hope father will see this.

I concentrated on looking for the three people. They burst through the airborne firefield and landed in front of me.

Every move I made, from the beginning of this fight to now, were all designed to lead up to now, to this moment. Every point of mana spent. Every step I took. Every sacrifice I made. Everything I did made this outcome more likely, even getting Hui Ming injured.

I sent my mana underground. A sea of plants lie meters beneath the surface of the earth. Not noticing anything, Dao landed directly on top of the plants.

I let a sigh of relief exit my lips. My limbs relaxed as the tension faded from my body. I took Control over all of my father’s old plants. They surged out from underground, the hidden and forgotten reawakening.

Giant blades, countless Twentytacle Traps, endless vines. All were all stuck together, waiting to move again. Now unleashed, they wrapped around Dao and sucked him underground. I set a Blade against his throat. “And now, it’s over.” The firelight from the explosions faded, leaving the only illumination to the moon.