“Li Yigen, are you all right?” Hong Xin asked.
“I’ll live,” he said. Fortunately, he was one of the few body cultivators in their group.
Hong Xin placed two fingers on his heart and melted the ice, allowing it to beat normally.
Hong Xin finally looked at the patients. “Please, release us,” the many patients said.
“Kill us,” other said.
So much suffering, so much pain, Hong Xin thought.
Have you neutralized the target? Bai Ling sent.
The target has been apprehended alive, Hong Xin said. The others?
Twelve targets were either killed or committed suicide, Bai Ling said. Fourteen were captured, including yours. Our people are moving in to erase any evidence. Tie up lose ends on your location and move on to the next.
Right. Loose ends. Capturing or killing offending members was comparatively easy. Now they had to race against time to avoid getting framed as devil worshipers by the Spirit Temple. They would immediately know of these sisters’ deaths and would act swiftly to discover the cause.
“I won’t kill you,” Hong Xin said to the survivors. “But I can do something else. I can heal most of your wounds. More importantly, I can make you forget.” She didn’t ask for permission before proceeding.
Hong Xin summoned a multitude of talismans. She poured her resplendent force into them and sent them out to each of the victims, whose many wounds began to heal. Though she couldn’t regrow their lost limbs and appendages, she could at least prevent any further complications. Once their wounds healed, and Li Yigen and Mistress Shan left the village, Hong Xin summoned several amnesia talismans. They struck each of the victims in the forehead and caused them to immediately pass out. She used her resplendent force to carry them outside the building just beside the illusory field before coming back into the building.
She wanted nothing more than to show the torture implements, the shackles, and the beds to the inquisitors and let them loose on the vile Spirit Temple. Unfortunately, such a move would only backfire. She could only do the next best thing, which was to destroy them. Flames erupted around her, intense flames that melted metal and evaporated wood. These flames didn’t immediately destroy the building because they were contained by an icy shell that prevented them from spreading.
After all the primary evidence was erased, she eased up the flame and allowed the rest of the building to catch fire. To any investigator, it would look like a normal arson of a normal building.
Hong Xin sighed as she walked over to the illusory formation and shattered it, revealing the smoldering husk of a building that remained. She heard shouting from the village, and once they found the villagers who had been mysteriously piled up outside the building, she left. Anyone with half a brain would be able to tell that the hundreds of fires that broke out that night were related. What was important, however, was that nothing concrete was tied back to them. A few well-placed bribes would ensure word never spread out from each respective village.
It was an eventful night for the Red Dust Pavilion, a night where they stained their hands with blood and freed the innocent. It was a night where they covered their tracks through fire and punishment. It was also their last free night.
From then on, no members of the Red Dust Pavilion dared travel alone.
Chapter 17: Pushing Past the Peak
“Finally,” Cha Ming said, heaving a sigh of relief as he entered his chambers. It had been an exhausting few weeks where he did nothing but teach his new students. Finally, after working for twenty-three days straight, he was allowed to leave.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy escaping my dreaded clutches,” Sun Wukong said. “Now that we’re stocked up on ingredients, you’ll be making pills until that’s all you see in your dreams.”
Cha Ming sighed. “Tell me why we needed time essence again? Those discs are extremely expensive and in very short supply.” He summoned a gray portal in the room and stepped into it.
Sun Wukong appeared beside him as he entered. “Follow me,” he said.
Cha Ming followed, and to his surprise, they stopped at the edge of Jade Moon Garden. There seemed to be an invisible membrane that surrounded the garden now. On the other side of that barrier, the beautiful garden was the same as ever, but something was off. He willed himself to appear just outside the edge and was aghast when he realized what was different. Everything was moving extremely quickly. Uncertain, he reached into the invisible bubble around the garden. Nothing happened. He then stepped through it and saw everything slow down in an instant. That, or he’d sped up along with it.
“It’s time contraction,” Sun Wukong said, walking through the bubble behind him. “While you were hard at work these past six months, the Clear Sky Brush was trying its best to integrate the large spatial fragment along with that very powerful time-essence disc the princess gave you. Three days ago, the fusion finally finished. The Clear Sky World can now contract time by a factor of five without using any ambient energy. There’s only one drawback.”
“I’d imagine that’s why you got me to collect time-essence discs,” Cha Ming said. “That, and the literal mountain of spirit stone ore and the small ocean of liquified elemental essence you had me buy.”
“Bingo,” Sun Wukong said. “This is by far the fastest way to advance your alchemist grade. It took you six months to advance to mid grade, and normally, it might take you two years to advanced to high grade, and eight years to advance to peak grade. It should go much faster since you don’t lack skills or knowledge, only experience. Unfortunately, your progress is slower than most for obvious reasons.”
“I supplement my qi by using my soul,” Cha Ming said. “I have much more downtime than most alchemists. I could craft a pill a day
