Chapter 450: Duel of Fiancés

Zae Zin Nim sat alone, and for once she didn't cultivate. Not while her spouses were out risking their lives.

In theory, so much was within their grasp... immortality elixirs and perhaps even the Loam of the Gods. They had been preparing for this attack for weeks, yet she doubted that everything could go according to plan. Omilaena was deep within the enemy fortifications, and Kai was on the battlefield, but if either needed her help, she would rush to them anyway.

How long had elapsed, precisely? Normally she could lose hours in cultivation, but now the minutes seemed to crawl by. It was possible that they would return to her soon and all her concern would be for nothing, but maybe...

She reached into her spatial bracelet and removed one of the chakra seeds, just to reassure herself. If they wanted to contact her, they easily could with a bonded seed.

Or should have. The seeds felt unusually dead, suppressed. When she tried to activate one, she felt no familiar response.

Instantly Zae Zin Nim was on her feet, trying to pinpoint the source. It was nothing overt, instead an incredibly subtle aura, like some sort of widespread field of effect. It wasn't unheard of for large sects to be able to produce such things, but this felt too specific and planned. Whatever it was, it meant something bad.

"Stay low and prepare!" She called out to the Krysali, mostly so they would stay out of her way, and leapt away from the ship. Most of the camp was hiding in the swamp while she and a few others waited in a drier area, but she jumped further to one of the nearby hills.

Nothing in sight, and the suppression hadn't changed. Clearly it was a very wide range technique, weakened in order to cover a large area. That meant their location wasn't being targeted specifically, and they might even have simply been covered by some conflict between sects, but she couldn't bet on that.

Before she could find any answers, she was followed by a number of Krysali, including Nirka and Cragrila.

"What's going on?" Nirka asked. "Did you get a message?"

"I can't, and that's the problem." Zae Zin Nim had no time for her questions and continued extending her senses, trying to find something that could be the source of all this. Yet the region remained as isolated as always...

Until suddenly a Sky Soul broke into her range, speeding toward her.

The streak of purple light transformed into a lean man as it reached the hill, and Zae Zin Nim was prepared to attack the instant his greater flight ended, but he didn't act immediately. Instead he drew himself upright, his hands slipped into his expensive sleeves, and looked at her. Technically she had never seen him before, and he wore no insignia, so it could have been any of the young masters.

But she knew it was him. Xir Xan Khan, the man she had been assigned to marry.

"When I tracked down the source, I never would have imagined this," he said in a low voice. "Zae Zin Nim?"

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..

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Kai shot toward the ground, briefly summoning Thunderbird's Wings again in order to produce a shockwave in the middle of the enemy. A formation of Verdant River cultivators was scattered by the impact, and the Redtree rebels let out a cheer, but Kai was already exploding onward as quickly as he could.

Omilaena's message had been speculative, yet a cold feeling had begun to sink into his stomach as soon as he heard the words. They had weakened and drawn away so many of their opponents, which might come back to bite them now. There was nothing stopping Omilaena from stealing immortality and the Loam, but there were more forces threatening everyone else.

The heir to the Coiling Island sect was strong, though not as strong as Zae Zin Nim. If it was the two of them fighting on even terms, Kai would bet on his wife every time. Yet he couldn't escape the feeling that something was wrong and she needed him.

That meant leaving the Redtree rebels. He had taken a path through their battles so that he could eliminate some Earth Souls and break apart some formations, but as he left them behind they would lose his support. In theory they didn't need him, and could retreat if necessary, but even if his departure meant their loss, this was more important to him.

He pushed himself even harder, screaming through the air. Black wings extended from his back, beginning to crackle with thunder. Kai had never traveled this fast before... and he had no idea if it would be enough.

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..

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Even though she shouldn't have been afraid of him, Zae Zin Nim still hesitated. This man represented her father, her potential marriage, and everything she had feared. She had over 100 Power on him and confidence in her abilities, and yet when she saw the icy way he looked down on her...

"You must be Xir Xan Khan," she made herself say. "Heir to the Coiling Island sect."

"So it is you. Rogue daughter of the great Brightwind sect." Xir Xan Khan shook his head slowly. "Your father was furious, you know, and expected me to call off the arrangement. But I'd rather have a woman with a spine than these limp courtesans."

"If you like my spine, then listen when I tell you to leave."

"Are you part of all this business? So many threats to the Masterful Crown clan... I had suspected they might be connected, but I never imagined that you could be involved."

She remained silent, preparing herself.

"Come now, there's no need to fight. Return with me and explain whatever schemes you're involved in and they will be forgiven. My own sect is making an arrangement with the Verdant River sect, so we'll soon have more immortality elixir than we need. With the two of us together, everything can return to normal, as if you never left."

Zae Zin Nim set her feet and raised her palms to fight.

"Really?" Xir Xan Khan shook his head as if disappointed. "Come now, don't be obstinate."

Without warning a great power welled up in him, coiling around his body and expanding to cover the entire area. She anticipated the presence technique and braced herself against it, but many of the Krysali were knocked over backward or frozen in place. Nirka had dropped to hands and knees while Cragrila fell to one knee.

And yet Zae Zin Nim stood. She felt the presence technique like a flood, but it couldn't bind her. As she had feared, the raw qi of a Sky Soul made it difficult to resist with her own qi, but the Pure Yin Shroud wrapped around her tightly. That raw strength could take her through the pressure, if she chose her moment.

"You're strong, without question," Xir Xan Khan told her. "But you haven't reached the peak of cultivation, so you still have vulnerabilities. Come back with me and we can take care of that, return you to a path to the true summit of power."

"No." Zae Zin Nim didn't reveal her full capacity yet, instead taking a step forward as if it was difficult for her. "If you have any respect for me, you will leave me alone."

"I can't do that, Zin Nim. Cloudspire is growing more dangerous as sects are absorbed into one another, and I need a true ally. I've refused countless silly girls because I was waiting for you. That should be worth something."

It made him different from some young masters, but did he think that was worth her hand, her body, her life? Zae Zin Nim didn't know how to speak any of the words in her heart, so she remained silent. Her eyes must have changed, because she saw him shift back in disappointment.

"I don't want to suppress you like this," Xir Xan Khan said, "but I will if necessary. You need to stop these wild wanderings, Zin Nim. They won't make you an immortal, and you desperately need the immortality elixirs now."

"What?" She stared at him, for the first time puzzled. It was true that she wanted immortality desperately - that was the reason she had made all these plans - but it had never seemed particularly urgent. She had even considered reaching Sky Soul first, just to be sure she attained a perfected form of immortality.

"You're still young, but for how much longer? You were twenty years old when I first heard of you, so you must be getting closer to thirty now. If you want to maintain eternal youth, you're running out of time. I don't demand a young bride, but don't play these games until you pass the peak of your beauty."

And all at once, Zae Zin Nim realized that he wasn't any different. She leapt to strike.

Surrounded by the Pure Yin Shroud, his presence technique couldn't bind her, and she crossed the distance between them in an instant. She didn't try to use the Coldfire Palm, since that took a moment to form, and instead went back to her most polished palm technique: a pure lethal strike to the inner organs. Her opponent was shocked for a second, and that let her cross the distance, but she didn't have an instant longer.

He had just started to raise defenses when her palm hit his stomach. The impact rang like a bell and sent him hurtling backward, blood welling up in his mouth. Yet as she returned to her ready posture, Zae Zin Nim realized that it hadn't been quite enough.

Xir Xan Khan controlled his path in midair and came to a halt, revealing that he had mastery over two different greater flight techniques. He spat aside the blood and looked at her, fury building in his eyes. She had taken him off guard once, but he was no fool, and he wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

"Fine then," he said, "if I have to show you your errors by force, I will."

Then his presence technique compressed, no longer attempting to bind her and instead infusing his body so that his power exploded. An instant later he launched himself through the air and they clashed in a whirlwind of blows.

(I don't usually do this mid-week, but I added a bonus story Chapter 436-B. It is some of the same time from Kai's perspective, plus the full NSFW scene in the courtyard.)