Fates Parallel Chapter 274 - Debriefing

Jung was sound asleep by the time the girls made it back to camp, having been exhausted by the day in town. Jia and Eui carried her between them on the bamboo litter. It was simple, but light and sturdy, with enough room for Jung to lie down and a basic roof to protect her from the elements.

It wasn’t the most comfortable ride, but Jia had fixed that by adding a few cushions she found in her storage ring. She wasn’t sure where she’d gotten them—Noguchi castle, or maybe one of the hotels they’d stayed in during their travels in Goryeo. She must have taken them without thinking.

As they crested the hill, they were met by a few baffling sights. Eunae rested against one of the few trees in the area large enough to cast any shade—not that there was any sunlight left to block—with Ja Yun’s head in her lap. Ja Yun herself seemed to be sleeping contentedly while Muddy stood on her chest and waved incomprehensible signals at Eunae.

Eui nudged Rika with her elbow and smirked.

“When did that happen?”

Rika blinked and scratched her head.

“I don’t know. Good for them, though—I’m glad to see them getting along. It’s been a little tense lately.”

The second oddity was Narae, lying defeated at Master Ienaga’s feet while the latter put the finishing touches on a wooden sword she’d fashioned out of a branch. Once Jung’s litter was safely resting on the ground, Jia went over to investigate while Eui checked on Jung.

“Master, what’s going on over here?”

Ienaga Yumi greeted her with a nod.

“Welcome back, Lee. While you were away, I took the liberty of correcting a few errors in your little sister’s training.”

Jia looked down at Narae, face down in the grass with only the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest indicating that she was even still alive.

“Dare I ask how? I’ve never seen her so worn out.”

Ienaga nodded.

“That is part of the problem, I suspect. I heard about how she awakened in all three disciplines at the same time—I should have expected nothing less from your disciple, but it meant that she never experienced the true exhaustion of a ki awakening. She had no concept of how it felt to be an empty vessel.”

“So you had her expend all of her essence?”

“Among other things, yes. Her flying technique is interesting—if I’m not mistaken it’s Hayakawa’s Weightless Fist modified with spiritual arts in a similar way to Takeda’s doppelganger technique. Did Hayakawa teach that herself, or did you find an opportunity to steal her techniques?”

Jia crossed her arms and frowned.

“She taught it freely, thank you very much. I don’t appreciate being accused, master.”

Ienaga smiled.

“I wasn’t accusing you of anything, Lee. There’s no shame in adopting the techniques of others—or did you think I invented all of mine independently? Regardless, your sister’s technique has some critical weaknesses.”

“Sure, like the fact that her blows have no force.”

“No, that’s nothing. She’ll learn to overcome that with practice. There’s a much more dire problem—do you recall how you defeated Hayakawa’s technique?”

“Of course—her ultimate form is susceptible to gravity magic. It pulls her out of the weightless state and slows her down enough to fight back.”

Although that could hardly be considered a weakness. Hayakawa was not the kind of fighter who relied entirely on one ultimate move to win her fights.

“Your sister has the same problem, but much worse. Even the weakest application of gravity magic completely shuts her entire style down. Simply put, Lee Narae cannot carry any weight while she flies. That’s been the focus of our training today—I’ve had her trying to hover while adding progressively more weight over time.”

Jia knelt down and patted her poor exhausted sister on the back. Knowing Ienaga, they’d probably been at it all day.

“How did you find out about the gravity magic? I didn’t think you could use arcane or spiritual arts.”

“I cannot, no. I simply asked Seong Misun for assistance.”

“And she agreed?!”

Master Ienaga chuckled.

“Princess Seong can be difficult, but she’s not unreasonable.”

Jia wasn’t so certain, but didn’t bother pressing the point. Looking around her, Jia was reminded of the third and final oddity.

“Actually, now that you mention it, where is Seong Misun? I haven’t seen her since I got back, and I don’t sense her in my domain.”

As if in response, a dark tear in the world opened up next to Jia and Misun stepped out, scowling as the rift sealed itself behind her.

“Trying to figure out how to spiritwalk, to no avail. The best I can manage is that strange shadow world halfway in between, and only at significant cost. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to let me analyze your Steps of the Stalker technique?”

Jia gawked at the princess—had she reverse engineered Lee Hei’s shadow steps?

“Uh, no disrespect Your Highness, but that technique is our only trump card for escaping powerful xiantian cultivators. It’s not something we can share lightly.”

“Tch. I should have guessed. I don’t think I’ll be pursuing this research any further, then. I have no idea how you even managed it, but it takes me too much divine essence to cross the threshold. At least now I know I won’t be trapped if you ever drag me into that dimension again.”

Seong Misun turned and walked off without another word, and Jia gave Master Ienaga a questioning look. Ienaga shrugged.

“I told you it wasn’t unusual to adopt the techniques of others. It means she respects you—as a potential threat, if nothing else.”

Jia crossed her arms and huffed. She usually shared her techniques freely, but she didn’t know how she felt about having something so personal and unique to her flagrantly stolen like that. Then again, she couldn’t be too mad about it—she was, after all, working with Ja Yun to do the exact same thing to Misun’s spells.

She picked Narae up off the ground and threw the girl over her shoulder—noting with some chagrin that her little sister was getting taller. Before leaving, Jia turned to address Master Ienaga.

“Should we report on our trip now, or wait until morning?”

“The sooner the better. I see you’ve secured transportation for Lee Jung, so we shouldn’t waste too much more time here.”

Jia grimaced internally, knowing that she was about to propose a detour, but nodded.

“I’ll be right back with the others, then.”

—-

After Narae was safely tucked into bed with Jung, Jia gathered up the others and they returned to report their day in town. Eunae and Ja Yun joined to listen in as well, and even Misun stayed within earshot—though she feigned disinterest.

The debrief went surprisingly well, though Ienaga was slightly disappointed that they’d managed to give themselves away so early after warning them to be careful who they trusted. Unsurprisingly, it was the matter of the detour that caused the most problems.

“Lee, I understand you’re worried about your sisters, but you’re talking about going out of our way to walk straight into one of the very sects we are supposed to be avoiding.”

Jia felt like cringing under Ienaga’s admonishment, but stood firm.

“Jung might not make it to our destination at this rate. This alchemist is the best chance we have.”

“The odds of an imperial sect—even a lesser one—not having at least one xiantian level elder are vanishingly slim, Lee. Not only are you extremely likely to be discovered, but the consequences for it will be dire. In the worst case, it could mean aborting the mission entirely and either surrendering or fleeing back across the border.”

“We can hide our identities! I know how to suppress my domain, and with illusions—”

Ienaga shook her head.

“Lee, you were discovered by a mortal within a single day. You are an incredibly talented woman, but you have never been good at hiding information. Besides, your Valley of Illusory Mists technique is a common one, and I doubt that a sect like ‘The Gaze of the Everwatching Mists’ will be unfamiliar with it. You need something stronger.”

Jia bit her lip. Ienaga was right, she wouldn’t last one minute in a sect full of Mist cultivators, much less against the scrutiny of a xiantian master’s domain.

“What if we did have something stronger? A technique that could even fool xiantian senses?”

Master Ienaga crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

“Do you?”

“Not yet, but if we came up with something—”

“In the two or three days of travel it would take us to arrive there.”

Jia grimaced. She’d almost forgotten how much slower mortal travel was. A week’s travel would only be a single day at full speed, and even with Jung slowing them down it wouldn’t be more than three days.

“R-right. If we came up with a new technique to hide our identities, one strong enough to fool both you and Misun, would you agree to it then?”

Ienaga pursed her lips.

“It’s an absurd suggestion, but I would fail my duty as a teacher if I didn’t give you the opportunity to try. Three days—at most. If I sense a xiantian domain before then, your time limit will be cut short. We’ll make for the sect, and you have until then to create your technique. Good luck.”

Jia bowed deeply.

“Thank you master!”

Master Ienaga sighed.

“You won’t be thanking me when I enforce that time limit. If that’s all, you’re dismissed. We’ll leave at midnight to avoid being spotted by the town.”

As the girls dispersed, Jia cast a sidelong glance at Seong Misun. She’d been conspicuously quiet during the debriefing, and hadn’t even complained about the detour. Just what was going through her head?

Jia didn’t have time to worry about it. She had only a few days to come up with a brand new illusion technique from scratch and not so much as the slightest clue where to start. So she turned to her friends.

“Rika! I need your help.”

Rika grinned widely.

“I’ll say. Honestly, Jia, I’m pretty sure you bit off more than you can chew this time.”

Jia pouted—the lack of faith was disturbing.

“When have I ever failed to deliver on something like this?”

“Well, there was that whole week after Yan Yue betrayed you when you spread yourself so thin that Eui had to repeatedly pull you out of a pool of your own blood. At the end of all that, you had almost nothing to show for it and we all got our asses kicked by Zheng Long for you.”

Jia held up a finger and opened her mouth to protest, paused, then crossed her arms.

“Okay, that did happen. But it was extenuating circumstances! Are you going to help or not?”

Rika laughed.

“Of course I’ll help. I just don’t know what difference it’s going to make.”

“We’ll see. Your technique is pretty close to fooling my senses, and if it can fool my domain, then maybe it will fool Master Ienaga’s.”

Rika snorted.

“How humble of you. So what’s the plan?”

Jia’s eyes flitted back and forth as she started to brainstorm ideas. She tried to let her intuition guide her as her thoughts went into overdrive.

“We’ll need...Ja Yun, and maybe Eunae too. Maybe Heian can remember that trick she taught Haeun too. Jianmo—no, they’re too unreliable. But maybe if we...”

She trailed off, noticing Rika and Eui both grinning at her.

“What?”

Eui snickered.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen that look on you, Jia.”

“What look?”

“The one where you’re about to come up with some ridiculous idea that any experienced cultivator would write off as insanity. The one that usually either leads to you breaking every known law of cultivation or passing out in a pool of your own blood.”

Jia scuffed at the ground with her foot, frowning.

“That was one time!”

Eui and Rika’s laughter filled the night as they got to work on developing their new technique.