Chapter 384 — Stage One: Unsealed

CHAPTER 384

Stage One: Unsealed

The ravine behind the plateau was narrow, and the ash rain fell straight down into it.

Shi Feng and Sima Lan were halfway through when six men in Martial Palace crimson stepped out from the rocks ahead. Rocks shifted behind them, and the way back was shut as well. At the front of the six walked a young man in a white jade belt.

“Junior Brother Shi,” Wei Lingfeng said, bowing with perfect courtesy. “Please forgive the narrow road. This Wei Lingfeng wished for a quiet word.”

“Wei,” Sima Lan said.

“I'm Wei Chengyuan's grandson,” Wei Lingfeng said pleasantly. “You've met my grandfather's letters. Perhaps you remember my kinsman Wei Renshan, of Yunze.”

Shi Feng remembered. He remembered a quarry road, a jade token and a man who had demanded he kneel.

“I remember,” Shi Feng said.

“And his son, Wei Kuo,” Wei Lingfeng added, watching for a reaction.

“Also,” Shi Feng said.

“Then you understand that the Wei family has a debt to collect,” Wei Lingfeng said. His smile did not change at all. “The Palace says it is closed. My grandfather says it is closed. But a gentleman's revenge is not too late even after ten years. But the Wei blood doesn't close, Junior Brother. It waits for a ravine.”

“Do you want the debt in stones or in apology?” Shi Feng asked.

“Neither,” Wei Lingfeng said. “I want to see your face when I'm done.”

Sima Lan sighed. She shifted her ledger behind her hip and looked at the six men's hands. None of them seemed to have noticed her change of stance.

“Escort,” Wei Lingfeng said. “Hold the lady's attention. Don't kill her. She's a princess, and the Palace dislikes complications.”

The six men drew their blades.

“Attendant,” Sima Lan said, without turning her head. “Not lady.”

Then she moved.

The first escort reached for his sword and found his wrist already held. The second opened his mouth to shout a warning, and a palm closed it for him. Sima Lan kept close enough that the drawn blades could not swing freely. She broke each man's balance before moving on to the next. Her thin sword stayed in its sheath; she hadn't thought the six worth the steel.

Shi Feng didn't watch her. He knew what the next breaths would sound like, and he had a young man to keep an eye on. Wei Lingfeng had stepped back three paces, clasped his hands in front of his chest and closed his eyes.

“Stage one,” Wei Lingfeng whispered. “Seal of the Wei Pillar Blood. Open.”

The air in the ravine changed.

A red glow rose under his skin. Veins stood out along his throat and wrists. The ash around his feet blew outward in a ring, and his robe began to snap in a wind that wasn't there.

“Stage one,” Wei Lingfeng said louder, and flung out both arms. “Unsealed!”

His aura jumped. The man standing in the ravine had been early Golden Core a breath ago. Now he stood at mid Golden Core, and the pressure on the rocks made small stones roll from the walls.

Behind Shi Feng, a body hit the ground. Then a second. Sima Lan was working through the escort, and she wasn't wasting breath.

“The Wei Pillar Blood has five stages,” Wei Lingfeng said grandly. “Each stage doubles the one before it. My grandfather's own Seal reached only three. No one outside my family has ever seen the second stage! Do you know what that means, Shi Feng?”

“No,” Shi Feng said.

“It means—” Wei Lingfeng began, raising one glowing hand.

“Please continue,” Shi Feng said. “I'm not in a hurry.”

Wei Lingfeng stared at him.

“You're not afraid?” Wei Lingfeng demanded.

“I'm waiting,” Shi Feng said. “Finish the stage. I'd rather you did it all at once.”

“You think I'm bluffing!” Wei Lingfeng said. His raised hand shook with anger.

“I think you're still talking,” Shi Feng said.

Wei Lingfeng flushed red from the neck up. He closed his eyes again, and the glow in his veins began to swell for stage two. It was a slow business. A rumbling came from deep in his chest, and sweat ran down his face.

Shi Feng turned and walked to the nearest fallen escort.

The man lay on his back, one hand still reaching for a sword. Sima Lan had struck him once, under the ribs, and he wasn't going anywhere. Shi Feng crouched, unhooked the storage ring from his belt and tipped it into his palm.

“Ring one,” Shi Feng said. “Mid Foundation Establishment. Let's see.”

“Stage two,” Wei Lingfeng said through his teeth, “is nearly open!”

“Eleven healing pills, Grade One,” Shi Feng read, in a flat voice. “A silver comb. Two contribution tokens. Eight hundred and forty stones. One unpaid tailor's receipt from Zhenwu City.”

“Unpaid?” Sima Lan said, from the other side of the ravine. A fifth man dropped. “For what?”

“A robe,” Shi Feng said. “Crimson. Forty stones.”

The fallen escort groaned and begged him to stop reading out the receipt. He even offered to pay, though Shi Feng already held his ring.

“With what?” Shi Feng said. “I have it.”

Behind him, Wei Lingfeng made a strangled noise.

Shi Feng set the first ring on a rock, picked up the second and continued.