Chapter 385 — Stage Three

CHAPTER 385

Stage Three

“Stage two,” Wei Lingfeng roared, “is unsealed!”

The glow in his veins went from red to deep crimson. His aura climbed again, and the ravine walls cracked in a thin line from top to bottom. Small stones rattled down onto the dead ash.

Shi Feng didn't look up. He had just opened the third escort's ring.

“Ring three,” Shi Feng read. “Four packets of Qi-Returning powder. One broken jade whistle. Six hundred stones, in a purse with a hole. A spare belt.” He tilted the ring. “One talisman.”

Sima Lan appeared at his shoulder. The last of the six men lay behind her with his face in the ash. She hadn't a hair out of place.

“Which talisman?” Sima Lan asked.

“Wind-Step. Golden Core-grade,” Shi Feng said, holding it by the clean edge.

“Half for me,” Sima Lan said.

“The ring is mine,” Shi Feng said.

“The labour was mine,” Sima Lan said. “Six men, no wage.”

“You get a wage,” Shi Feng reminded Sima Lan.

“Not for this,” Sima Lan said. She took the talisman from his fingers and slid it into her sleeve. “Clause nineteen. Extra services. Half.”

“There's no clause nineteen,” Shi Feng said.

“I'm adding it,” Sima Lan said. “The Attendant has stamped it.”

Behind them, the ground trembled.

“Do you two mind?” Wei Lingfeng shouted. He stood in the middle of the ravine with his arms spread wide, shining like a furnace. His hair was standing on end. “I am in the middle of the Seal! Pay attention! This is the greatest moment of the Wei family in forty years!”

“We're listening,” Shi Feng said.

“You're counting my escort's rings!” Wei Lingfeng shouted, twisting toward the sound of another purse being opened.

“We can do both,” Shi Feng said. He set the ring down where its owner could see it.

Wei Lingfeng's face went purple. He drew a deep breath, and his chest swelled until the crimson robe creaked.

“Stage three!” Wei Lingfeng screamed. “The Blood Seal has never gone this far! My grandfather himself stopped here! I will crush you with a power he never had! You are a mayfly trying to shake a tree! Kneel, Shi Feng, and I may leave you your arms—”

The third stage opened.

It was real. Shi Feng felt it through the soles of his boots. The pressure rose to something that belonged to late Golden Core, and for a moment even Sima Lan stepped back. The ash blew away from Wei Lingfeng in a wide bowl, and the crimson of his veins turned almost black.

But Shi Feng had noticed something over the last three stages. It was quiet, and he'd had a long time to study it.

Wei Lingfeng's blood was moving faster than his meridians could carry it.

Each stage had pushed more power into a body that was only built for the stage before. The blood rushed. The channels strained. Even now, the little tremor in his wrist, the sweat on his lip and the shake of his knees were telling Shi Feng the same thing. The Seal had given him strength without giving him channels able to bear it. The strain was already visible before he struck.

“Are you finished?” Shi Feng asked.

“Almost!” Wei Lingfeng screamed. “One breath more, and then I shall—”

“Then I'll start,” Shi Feng said.

He crossed the ravine in three steps.

His footwork was still rough, but the distance was short, and Wei Lingfeng was standing still with his arms thrown wide, because the Seal required him to. He could neither turn nor lower his arms without interrupting the surge.

Shi Feng didn't draw the Sword. He raised his right hand and struck once, flat, with the heel of his palm, on the center of the white jade belt.

It was the lightest blow he had thrown all day.

The sound was dull. Wei Lingfeng's mouth opened. For a moment nothing happened at all, and then the crimson light in his veins went out as though a hand had pinched it.

The blood hit the wall.

It had nowhere to go. The strike had stopped his breath mid-surge, and three stages of power slammed back through his channels in the wrong direction. Wei Lingfeng shuddered. He screamed. Then he folded forward, and Shi Feng caught him by the collar and lowered him to the ash.

His eyes were open. His fingers twitched. Nothing else moved.

Sima Lan crouched beside him and laid two fingers on his wrist. She held them there longer than she needed to.

“His meridians,” Sima Lan said.

“I know,” Shi Feng said.

“They've burned through. Not cut. Burned. It's the Seal. The more one hurries, the less one reaches,” Sima Lan said. She lifted her eyes to Shi Feng, still holding the trembling wrist. “Crippled. Perhaps for good.”

“I only meant to knock him out,” Shi Feng said.

“I know,” Sima Lan said. “You don't look sorry.”

“I'm not,” Shi Feng said.

He thought of a quarry road, a kneeling order and a boy who had shouted Kill him! on a mountain path. He thought it over once, plainly, and found nothing to regret. He had let the boy finish three stages without lifting a hand.

Sima Lan took a sheet from her sleeve and the brush from behind her ear. In a neat, clear hand, she wrote.

To Junior Brother Wei Lingfeng, with respect. Thank you for the visit. Treatment of six escorts (40 stones each, 240), ground wear (20), delay of one traveller (60) and the Attendant's time (100): total 420 stones. Please send the balance to Artificer Hall. Payable by your grandfather. Courteously, Shi Feng.

“I didn't write that,” Shi Feng said.

“You will sign it,” Sima Lan said.

He signed. She laid the sheet on Wei Lingfeng's chest and set a pebble on top to hold it. The rest of the escort got a copy each, folded in half, one on each chest.

Far to the south, past three ridges, something howled.

A second howl answered. Then a third, closer. Then a long, thin, familiar ring, like a sword drawn through ice.

Shi Feng raised his head.