Author note: Had yesterday off work so didn't get a chance to write. Went to write today at work and my work computer crashed 4-5 times(4.5? It got halfway to booting and then rebooted I can't count that as 1 can I?) and wouldn't boot. No idea why. It started working again after the 4.5th time. Then I used it for 2 hours and started writing. I saved like every 3-4 paragraphs though because I don't think I could survive rewriting it again today.

So is my day lucky or unlucky?

~~~~

Sun Jiao had heard a shout and fell down to the ground with Xu Rong. Landing on his side he felt Xu Rong's light weight pressing him to the ground.

When she didn't stir he turned his body so that she lay on his chest.

Looking down he saw blood trickling from her mouth and immediately began to panic.

He began to yell and shake her shoulders.

"XU RONG! XU RONG!"

She didn't stir.

"XU RONG!"

Tears began to form in Sun Jiao's eyes as he continued to shout, but she remained lifeless on his chest.

As the realization struck him a myriad of emotions began to overwhelm him causing his soul to turn into chaos.

While Sun Jiao's soul was in turmoil it's defenses were weakened significantly. Sun Jiao on earth had never gone through loss and wasn't prepared for the sudden death. How could he have the strength of a cultivator that would deal with death every day?

Xiaobo, as if waiting for this moment, quickly began to work at changing the soul and suppress the negative emotions.

Sadness, fear, worry, panic, and all other emotions that Xiaobo felt were useless were attacked by Xiaobo's Will.

Anger was nourished and supported by Xiaobo. He was even surprised to a light bloodlust, but was unable to nurture it as it would react violently.

Like a sculptor working clay he carved out small changes as best he could without damaging the soul which could inhibit future cultivation.

These weren't the only changes. When the old Sun Jiao's soul was shattered to make room for the new Sun Jiao some pieces of the soul were left over. Xiaobo had kept them, mostly to play with, but now decided to use them.

He ground the soul fragments up and merged them into his Will. He then threw his Will at Sun Jiao's soul under the pretext of waking him from his stupor.

Under the influence of Xiaobo's changes Sun Jiao's tears had already dried. Feeling the blow to his soul caused him to focus and his soul quickly settled.

Anger that had been rising up only now was truly felt. Some people had a hot anger that burned like the sun. Sun Jiao however learned that his anger was a cold anger, so cold it burned the touch.

Holding Xu Rong he stood up stored her body into his storage ring. He then wiped his eyes clear and turned to the direction the spear had come from just as a figure appeared.

"Tsk. Missed the target, but hit a bullseye? I don't know if today is lucky or unlucky."

Sun Jun had fallen to the ground with exhaustion, but still managed to maintain awareness. He had tried to warn Sun Jiao, but his last puppet was destroyed causing his mouth to fill with blood. Just as his vision started to fade he heard a cold and dead voice that managed to send a chill down his spine.

"Unlucky."

Sun Jiao didn't hold back at all. Using Sun and Cloud steps he disappeared from Po's sight.

Po wasn't even able to make a sound before Sun Jiao appeared in front of him with his Silver Blade. He was stunned. The boy hadn't hesitated at all before attacking and he had already prepared some playful banter he wanted to use before the fight started. As his head fell to the ground it still managed to mouth the words he was going to say "maybe for you."

Sun Jiao came to a stop and stared down at the body feeling empty. A sound to his right caused him to move quickly away from the body and hold his weapon in front of him defensively.

A short hunchback man that had been hiding in a tree a short distance away landed on the ground and slowly approached the headless corpse. The bald man had several bamboos of different sizes sticking out of his back and wore a heavy mask that covered his mouth and nose. His forest colored clothes were loose but noiseless as he moved.

The man spoke in a scratchy voice.

"Idiot. After two years of infiltration you throw away my hard work just like that? Hmph."

Sun Jiao, realizing the two were together, sprang forward intending to kill the man. Before he could get far however he stopped and struck out horizontally to his left at a red streak that had just appeared.

The blade cut the streak in half with such force that the blood followed the blade and sprayed out to the left instead of continuing forward.

The hunchback man had ignored Sun Jiao and kicked the fallen head over to the body. Behind him a bloody mist began to pour out of the bamboo in his back. As the mist formed two bloody greyhounds jumped in front of him as if protecting him.

Xiaobo recognized what was happening and quickly spoke up while pouring Will into the thought-speak link.

While Xiaobo was talking he fed a little more of his Will into the anger Sun Jiao was feeling. Just enough that he wouldn't notice. Xiaobo had left metaphorical hooks in Sun Jiao's soul that he could adjust. If done too much then Sun Jiao's soul might instinctively notice and remove them so he couldn't be too greedy.

Just as Sun Jiao began to step forward the hunchback man spoke up.

"You've got pretty good ki-sense to detect these pets of mine."

As he spoke his eyes darted ever so slightly his right and then back.

The bloody greyhounds weren't sentient like the Amethyst Emperor Python. They were created by fusing ki with blood and then filling them with Will. The ki worked as fuel while the Will allowed Fatman to control them and determined the strength of their attacks. Every action would activate the ki which would make a small ki signature. If they could think for themselves they could hide their ki signature and launch an attack that, coupled with their soundless nature, would be almost impossible to detect.

Sun Jiao was fascinated with ki since he arrived and already had a powerful ki-sense that could detect the feignt ki of the hounds. While his ki observation was good his battle observation wasn't. He didn't detect the subtle eye movement of the hunchback man. Without Xiaobo he would have believed the hunchback man's words.

Sun Jiao took the words to heart, but didn't reply.

Activating his Sun and Cloud steps he moved in to attack the hunchback man. The Sun and Cloud steps worked using the explosive power of the Sun steps and the formless grace of Cloud steps.

Using only the Sun steps would cause a cultivator to explode forward and with one step travel a large distance very quickly. The drawback would be that you could only travel in a straight line and that when arriving at the location you would lose speed and stand still while having to expend even more ki and Will. This used up a large amount of energy and would quickly exhaust the user.

The Cloud steps allowed a cultivator to step forward and swim through the air like a cloud. It caused the wind resistance which would normally impeded to instead help the cultivator move quicker. It required much less ki and Will, but wasn't as quick; favoring instead gracefully avoiding attacks rather than forcefully dodging them with pure speed.

By combining the two Sun Jiao would alternate the steps by exploding forward, gracefully redirect and avoid, and then explode forward again without having to expend more energy. While moving forward he could also adjust his path slightly so that he didn't travel only in a straight line.

Through this he could use the ki and Will of a single Sun step to activate several Sun steps completely negating the largest flaw!

Even removing that flaw still left another. While performing the Cloud steps he would slow down considerably; it was only after performing the Cloud steps would his burst of speed return.

During this moment one of the bloody greyhounds lunged at Sun Jiao disrupting his movements. Sun Jiao avoided by moving to the right where the second hound attacked. He stopped moving and attacked back, but before the blade landed the hound turned into a puddle. The first hound then attacked again causing Sun Jiao to step back a distance. Just before Sun Jiao could step to move forward a third hound attacked him from behind.

Sun Jiao had noticed the ki-signature behind him and was able to avoid the attack, but had to move even further away from the hunchback man.

All this took time to explain, but happened in the span of two breaths.

The bloody mist above the hunchback man had paused at the start of the fight and had only grown slight so far. It resumed growing now and started to form a tentacle shape. Two bloody greyhounds stood between them with a third starting to take shape again.

Neither side moved and the mist continued to grow.

Xiaobo quickly spoke up.

Xiaobo was immediately cut off by Sun Jiao. He thought that perhaps he may have adjusted the anger a bit too much or that maybe it was the former Sun Jiao's influence. Then again it was amusing either way and at least he could still enjoy the show.

Sun Jiao stepped forward again and was again intercepted by the hounds. This time the bloody mist didn't stop growing. The hunchback man knew that Sun Jiao wouldn't stop attacking at this point and that the trick could only buy so much time. Now was the time to go all out.

Several breaths past and Sun Jiao hadn't made any progress forward. Normally the Sun and Cloud steps would take very little effort, but the fight with the three hounds caused him to stop and start the Sun and Cloud steps several times.

By now the mist had formed into a tentacle and reached towards the headless body. Just before it touched a glint appeared in Sun Jiao's eyes. He had been waiting for this moment as he knew it would take all the hunchback man's concentration.

At this moment he reached into his space ring and pulled out all the bodies he could grab. A mound of corpses appeared on his left forming a wall which blocked Fatman's sight of his bloody greyhounds and of Sun Jiao.

Using that wall Sun Jiao finally slipped past the hounds and shoved his blade right through the chest of the hunchback man.

A fierce look appeared on the hunchback man's face and with rage he tried to speak but coughed up blood instead. Turning his head to the right he glared at the direction of the Fatman before Sun Jiao twisted the blade and pulled it up through the hunchback man's head which split the top half of his body in two.

I thought of a really good title, but didn't fit this chapter at all. I can and will write a chapter JUST to use this title one day. That day is not today.

Other news; comp trouble = no sidestory. Sucks too thinking about writing some hot rat on beetle pretending to be a rat while using a flame spirit as a voice action.