Chapter 239 – Shattered

A faint rivulet of white light flowed from the meditating man towards the seal, and the snake symbol pulsed as the strength of spiritual power started building up around us. With every round of Yu Jing’s chanting, the pattern seemed to be spinning a little faster, its color glowing a little brighter.

So this was how the seal was strengthened … by channeling the summoner’s power into the existing spell, feeding renewed energy into the weakened talisman.

Bai Ye and I watched quietly, ears perked up for any sounds that didn’t fall into the rhythm of the chanting. All was hushed around us at first, and the soft incantations almost lulled me to sleep with its steady, soothing pace. But slowly, as the power in the cave chamber started flowing stronger and stronger, a low growl sounded somewhere behind us. Then another somewhere far to our left. Then another. A chorus was soon rising all around us, echoing off the cave walls.

“It’s the yazis,” I said, gripping the hilt of my swords tighter. “Did the power fluctuation from the seal alarm them?”

“It must be the sealed spirit inside those swords,” Bai Ye said, his brow knitting slightly. “Before it was confined, that presence was able to affect the yazis and cause them to lead those cultivators towards the portals. Now that we are altering the seal … Maybe the change of power flow is allowing the beasts to respond to it again.”

The growls grew louder, and they seemed to be drawing closer. “I’ll go take a look,” I offered. Needless to say, we’d be in a bad situation if the yazis were to surround us from all directions like this.

“Qing-er—”

“I can take on a few yazis by myself now. Don’t worry about me. The seal is more important at the moment.” I nodded towards Yu Jing, who was still deep in his chanting and most likely ignorant of everything else happening at the moment. “You will have to take over the grave responsibility of guarding him.”

Bai Ye was still trying to argue, but I quickly retreated out of the cave chamber without giving him the chance. The truth was, we both knew that his spiritual power hadn’t yet fully recovered, and I didn’t want to see him take any risks unless absolutely necessary. He had always been overprotective of me, and now was the time for me to return the favor.

Slipping out of the chamber, I followed the growls and trod through the labyrinth. Given the sound, there must be a handful of them quite close to us, which shouldn’t be too much challenge for me to take on—I hadn’t stopped practicing during Bai Ye’s recovery time, and with my new-found understanding of Twin Stars, my progress had been moving along so fast that I wouldn’t be surprised if my current strength was temporarily surpassing his. But remembering my lessons from our first trip to this cave, I fetched a shielding talisman and clutched it between my fingers just in case.

The sound of claws slapping over stone signaled the approach of the beasts. I raised my swords. At the next opening into a narrow tunnel, the first dark figure leaped at me, its maw wide open and slavering. Summoning my spiritual power, I hopped aside quickly and brought down my blades from above, before the beast had a chance to change course. A loud whimper echoed in the cave chamber, and its limp body collapsed to the ground.

That was even easier than I expected … I flexed my wrists and marveled at how much the improvement in spiritual power was able to achieve. I didn’t have too much time to gloat though, as the next shadow had closed in upon me, baring its teeth as it charged.

Left. Right. Up. Down. I moved with ease, swinging my swords so fast that all I could see was white flashes of their motion. The next few yazis were a little harder to deal with, since I could no longer make use of the tunnel’s opening to hide myself after my first victim had given away my position, but the battle still went much more smoothly than I anticipated. Within minutes, I had cleared the first batch of beasts, and I had just turned to follow the growls from the next cluster when I heard the sound of something shattering, coming from the direction of the seal.

“Stand behind me!” It was Bai Ye’s voice, the urgency in it clear even from a distance.

What just happened? Before I realized, I had already swirled in my tracks, my feet hitting the ground running. The growls from the yazis seemed to have grown louder as I tore through the cave tunnels, and a strong gush of spiritual power flooded the space, bombarding my senses along with the wind in my face.

The uneasy feeling from ten days ago bit back at me. This spiritual power … it wasn’t from the yazis, nor from the summoning chant to strengthen that seal. This felt too familiar. This was …

Storming back into the cave chamber, I skidded to a stop. “Bai Ye! What happ—”

The rest of the words froze in my throat as I took in the scene. Yu Jing had retreated into a corner with Bai Ye standing in front of him. Lightbringer pulsed with power, but the hand holding it wasn’t moving. Instead, it was trembling, and Bai Ye’s face was pale as snow as he stared at the center of the chamber.

The seal had shattered. Fragments of the raised platform scattered all over the chamber floor. Standing in front of us—not, drifting in front of us, as that body was light and ethereal as a fairy—was a girl, twin swords in her hands. Her bright red dress rustled with the gust of spiritual power circling around us, her flowing dark hair framing a beautiful face that was too familiar in my most feared dreams.

A face that once belonged to me, two hundred and fifty years ago.