Nine Paths of Asura-Original Wuxia

Chapter 162-Don't Cry So Hard Child

Pretty unhappy with the way this arc is turning out. Don't get me wrong, it's almost certainly the best one plot wise and technically. But sometimes I wish as author I could take executive action as kami and change the plot. Alas...I think I'm just as powerless as the reader today.

It was in that tiny moment as the exploding Hematoma consumed Dan's screaming forehead that Lineir made his movement. Xi's eye's flickered, attracted to the extreme explosion by Dan's last aching cry. A red field of Madness descended from seemingly nowhere, and yet it was everywhere.

Flash

The whole world turned crimson red for but a split second. In a concentrated sphere the Laws ceased to function as Lineir's Madness Domain activated. It was a World Without Gods, albeit if only because no gods were present at the moment. He dashed forward seeming to meld in with the loose folds of space and reality. He smashed the knife away from Ting's neck and grabbed her. As he pulled her away Xi's eyes bulged in slow motion as he watched Lineir seemingly teleport in front of him!

Clang! The Hematoma's explosion blew bloody mist and a terrifying wind across the field.

Shwooooosh

"Wha-how!?" Xi spat as he suddenly found his sword arm flailing, no longer capable of holding its deadly promise of death. Only an instant had passed, yet somehow this Divine Realm youth had teleported in front of him and stolen the girl! However, Xi did not move to stop Lineir! Instead-

"You think you can escape?? Even if you know the spatial laws or some other trick it's useless before absolute might!" He exclaimed as he knelt on the ground. Lineir, who had been rapidly fleeing with less than half his remaining QI reserves, looked to the sky. A feeling of doom filled his heart. In his hands he held the sealed Ting. Rapidly he ripped off the seal and her limpid brown eyes began to clear as the atmosphere grew thick with an ominous aura.

"Yu...NOOOO! DAMN YOU!" She cried immediately after regaining her faculties. The sky darkened, and Lineir frowned for it was not his Madness Rain. This was a different kind of cloud. It was a smog. In seconds a strange green gas appeared along with a semi translucent liquid which was thick enough to see even through the Death Qi haze. It congealed and revealed a person. A man with a stately atmosphere formed silently in the evening. He carried no weapons in his hands, his green robes flowing, liquid silk. His nose was straight like a noble or aristocrat and his fingers looked more suited to a laboratory than a fight.

"Master!" Xi worshipped on the ground. He made no move to try to stop the rapidly fleeing duo and Lineir's intuition screamed danger. His eyes darted about everywhere frantically trying to absorb as much information as possible about the new enemy as he ran. However, an immense sinking feeling felt like it was sucking his legs into the ground no matter how fast he ran. His instincts told him one thing and only one thing only. This noble man was beyond his limits.

"Xi...I must admit I am impressed. When we return after this success you will be rewarded with great favor. Your status will greatly rise amidst our Sect. However...before that, I have to finish opening the reunion gift you gave me. Oh, there's two? How would you like a new toy?" This ominous man slyly eyed Ting still in Lineir's arm. His voice made one shudder, it had the taste of cloying sugar. Xi beamed lecherously like a child at the words of his master. It was hard to believe that this was a grown cultivator,

"Thank you master Poison King!" He prostrated himself as if receiving a gift from the Gods.

"No need. As for you little child of our enemy, I saw your little trick with the red Qi just then. I wonder, can you do it for me again? And if you can, will you be able to stop the Laws for someone at my realm?" The Poison King's slight smile was more monstrous to Lineir than a thousand of Xi's. It contained an air of absolute confidence. Lineir was not just being disregarded, he was being experimented on for pleasure. "Come come do it again. I want to see just what artifact or treasure you are using to halt the Laws. Or are you really just going to lay down and die just like that?" He calmly taunted Lineir as several venomous green liquids oozed from his sleeves and suddenly the air became a toxic cesspool!

"Put me down!" Ting yelled forgetting her grief at Yu's sacrifice in the face of death. Lineir hastily set her down on her feet and handed a sword to her. She grimly took the hilt as the ooze surged in. It came slowly and insidiously, as if wishing to give the victim a chance to escape. However, it covered all angles, there was no escape, not even up. They were enveloped in a rapidly shrinking bubble of poison! Lineir grimly observed the land turning black in the trail of the ooze. It smoked like it had been touched by acid.

"Well? Not going to do it again? I guess it was only a one time trick after all. How disappointing. You can die now." The Poison King snapped his fingers and the bubble shrank and popped as the green liquid surged in! Lineir and Ting thrust their swords forward. Lineir even brought out Mizuchi however he didn't have any Qi left for a serious technique. The poisonous sphere contracted all around them. At the last second Ting used her own body to shove her way into the poisonous bubble and dragged Lineir along with her! He felt her hand on his arm seize with immense tension as she used her own body to clear a path for him to follow!

SHUAAAAA!!!

"Hah!" They pushed out on the other side. Ting collapsed, her body wracked with spasms and Lineir fell down on top of her.

"What are you doing! No...NO! Not you too!" He tried to touch her but she mustered the last of her Qi to keep his hands away. A faint smile tinged her lips,

"Stop or you'll be poisoned too. I was already dead. Xi poisoned me long before you arrived. It was only a matter of time..." She weakly said as tears came out, congealing as they mixed with the oozing poison eating at her pale lips. "There was no point in escaping anyways without Yu. That idiot...he should have known I'd never let him go." Her eyes closed and she fell into a deep sleep, still twitching as her heart slowed. Lineir shuddered as he knelt there, for the first time in a very long time, tears trailed down his face. The Poison King was watching along with Xi, enjoying his suffering.

"Child, don't cry so hard, you're next."