Chapter 25 — The First Guardian

CHAPTER 25

The First Guardian

The guardian shoved its head through the kiln doorway. Shi Feng thrust his sword toward its open mouth. The beast twisted, and the point scraped along a red plate before cutting into the softer joint beneath it.

Dark blood spilled across the threshold.

The guardian shrieked and struck down with a bladed foreleg.

Shi Feng stepped left. The limb hit the stone floor and threw broken chips against his boots. He cut across the joint before the creature could lift it again.

The foreleg folded.

Outside, Zheng Bao screamed louder than the beast.

“My doorway! Watch the doorway!” Zheng Bao cried.

Shi Feng didn't answer. The potter was somewhere behind the kiln, safely out of reach. He could complain to the bricks if he wanted.

The firing chamber was round, with a furnace recess at the back. Shi Feng's pack lay beside it. There was room to move inside, but only one proper entrance.

The larger guardian had climbed onto the roof. Its legs scratched across the curved bricks while the wounded one pushed farther through the doorway. He needed to kill the first beast before the second came down.

Shi Feng put his sword in his left hand and caught the advancing head with his right. The guardian's jaws snapped beside his wrist. He gripped the edge of its upper plate, pulled it downward, and drove a knee beneath its mouth.

Crack!

The lower plate split.

The creature jerked back, but Shi Feng followed. He planted one foot on the threshold and punched directly through the damaged plate.

The head slammed against the doorpost.

A second blow crushed the hard ridge behind its eye. The guardian collapsed halfway inside the kiln. Its bladed legs scraped the floor twice, then went still.

Shi Feng stood over it, breathing evenly.

Its strength was close to that of a Bone Refinement cultivator. Once, a beast like this could have chased him through half the town. Now it couldn't withstand his fist.

This was what all those hunts were for. He hadn't eaten beast meat and endured cultivation just to keep running from things he could crush.

A crash shook the roof above him.

The larger guardian drove one leg through the bricks. Shi Feng stepped away as it swept across the chamber and cut a shelf in half.

The potter howled again.

“That shelf was new!” Zheng Bao shouted. “The wedding bowls are on it!”

“Whose wedding?” Shi Feng asked, keeping his eyes on the beast.

“Mine! If she sees that kiln, there won’t be one!” Zheng Bao cried.

Shi Feng pulled the guardian’s head toward the empty side of the yard. He needed room to strike anyway. The potter’s marriage could survive if it stayed out of his way.

“Stay behind the wall,” Shi Feng said.

“I'm already behind two!” Zheng Bao shouted back.

Shi Feng dragged the first corpse away from the doorway. He wanted space to leave if the roof fell, not to crouch beneath it while waiting for another strike. The carcass was heavy, but he pulled it clear with one hand.

Outside, a group of people ran past the yard gate. One saw the red plates blocking the kiln entrance and screamed. Nobody came closer.

That suited him.

“Have they gone?” Zheng Bao called.

“One's dead,” Shi Feng said.

“Then why's my roof still shaking?” Zheng Bao demanded.

“The other one's on it,” Shi Feng said.

Something scraped above them. A loose brick fell into the doorway and broke beside the dead guardian.

Zheng Bao cursed from behind his wall.

“There's a ladder in the yard!” Zheng Bao shouted. “Can't you make it use the ladder?”

“Come and ask it,” Shi Feng said.

The potter didn't answer that.

Shi Feng wiped blood from his sword against the corpse. The edge had two fresh chips. He tested the grip and found it sound, then shifted the pack away from the falling dust.

A small cupboard stood beside the furnace. He pushed it over the pack, leaving space beneath so the bottles wouldn't be crushed if more bricks fell. His hand still felt steady. Killing the smaller guardian hadn't tired him.

He could finish the larger one too. It was coming down to him anyway. Shi Feng set the sword within reach and placed his palm beneath the first guardian's broken head.

The All-Devouring Physique responded.

Vitality entered through the contact, hot and rich. The dead beast's flesh tightened beneath his hand as part of its strength passed into him. He drew only a little before removing his palm.

There was no time to settle a whole guardian's vitality. Taking too much while fighting would burden his body instead of helping it. The resource wouldn't run away just because he left it for later.

He circulated what he'd taken through his meridians and stood.

The larger guardian struck the roof again.

A section caved inward. Shi Feng caught his pack by its strap and moved behind the furnace as bricks hit the floor.

The beast dropped through the hole.

Its front claws struck first. Its red head followed, forcing the opening wider until the chamber filled with dust. Shi Feng set the pack into the furnace recess and drew the sword again.

The guardian was larger than the first by half. Dark red armor covered its shoulders, and a thick ridge protected the head. The pressure from its body matched a Foundation Establishment cultivator's.

One major realm above him.

He could fight it. That didn't mean his ordinary sword would cut every plate cleanly.

The guardian lunged before the dust settled.

Shi Feng stepped toward its left side, caught a descending leg with his free hand, and cut at the joint with his sword. The edge opened the flesh but didn't sever it.

The beast slammed its body sideways.

Shi Feng braced his feet and held. The force drove him across the chamber, scraping two lines through the ash. He struck the nearer shoulder plate with his fist.

A crack spread across it.

The guardian shrieked and swung another foreleg around its body. Shi Feng turned his head away from the edge, but the hook caught his left shoulder.

Cloth tore. Blood ran down his arm.

He felt anger at once. Not fear. This thing had just damaged his new robe and opened a deep cut beneath it.

Shi Feng caught the hooked limb before it could pull free and used both hands to wrench it outward.

The joint cracked.

The guardian struck him with its head. He took the blow on his forearm, stepped back once, and drove the sword into the exposed flesh beside the broken plate.

The blade sank halfway.

Its steel bent when the beast twisted.

Shi Feng pulled it out before it snapped entirely. He didn't need to keep trading blows against the heaviest armor. The beast's joints and damaged shoulder were already within reach.

“Come on, then,” Shi Feng said.

The guardian came.

He met it with a short clan sword thrust, turned the blade outward as its head moved, and cut through the flesh beneath the jaw. It was the same simple turn he'd practiced beside the drying shed. The movement kept the edge against the wound instead of wasting the stroke in the air.

Blood splashed over his sleeve.

The guardian reeled, then struck the furnace wall with its good foreleg. A long crack opened in the bricks behind Shi Feng's pack.

He grabbed the strap and moved it toward the first corpse. His left shoulder throbbed. Warm blood dripped from his fingertips, but his grip remained strong.

A normal Bone Refinement cultivator would've been badly outmatched. Shi Feng wasn't normal. He could still overpower this beast, provided he stopped letting it swing freely at his wounded side.

He backed into the center of the chamber and raised the bent sword. The guardian lowered its head. Its broken leg dragged, and blood bubbled beneath the jaw.

Neither of them was finished.

Behind the yard wall, Zheng Bao began praying so loudly that the words carried through the dust.

Shi Feng glanced at the cracked roof, then back at the beast.

“Pray for your kiln,” Shi Feng said. “I'm busy.”