The Second Storm (A Thousand Li #6)

=Chapter 1=

They came for him on the road to Feng Jian.
Four figures clad in black, their bodies blending into the shadows cast by the foliage on that single track, earthen path he traversed. Wu Ying was moving swiftly, his cloth-shoed feet barely touching the ground as he swept forward, intent on reaching the city before the night arrived in all its glory.
His clothing, those dark and light green robes of the Verdant Green Waters Sect, were mildly stained and dirty, the unearthly silk unable to deal with the numerous days and nights Wu Ying had spent in the backcountry. Even its enhanced durability had given way under the wear and tear of days traipsing through spider-infested, monster-laden untamed wilderness. The robes were still soft, cooler and gentler than anything he had ever worn before his introduction to the Sect, but Wu Ying could almost feel the dirt that rubbed against his tanned and grimy skin.
Not that he had time to worry about that right now. As four assailants stepped out of the shadows, Wu Ying shifted the flow of chi in his feet with but a thought, allowing himself to regain the weight he had held off the earth with his qinggong technique. A hand dropped to the worn hilt of his belted jian, though he chose not to draw the weapon.
Not yet.
“What can I do for you, Honored Cultivators?” Wu Ying said, his voice a little harsher, a little darker than before. For two years, he had crossed the roads and backcountry of the kingdom of Shen, collecting and harvesting herbs for his Sect and their allies. In that time, he had grown up and changed, his voice deepening a little, the boyishness of before disappearing. Wariness had replaced naivete.
After all, this was not the first time he had been waylaid.
“You are the Verdant Gatherer?” The speaker was to Wu Ying’s left, taller than the others. His face was clean-shaven, his topknot tied high to allow his hair to spill out behind him in a brown wave. There was a cruel streak in his eyes, even as he fingered the pair of butterfly swords in his hands.
Rather than answer, Wu Ying drew a deep breath. He let the warmth from the light exertion of running for hours on end dissipate. The thrum of earth chi beneath his feet and the brush of the wind caressed his face. More importantly, his breath brought with it the scents of the four, their positions and their elemental affinities.
Three fire cultivators—the leader and the two behind—while the sole wood cultivator stood on Wu Ying’s right. She had on light perfume that made his nose itch and his eyes burn a little. Poisonous then, the kind that would cause his sinuses to close and his eyes to water. Not sufficient to kill, but a subtle advantage. She likely had more poisons on her, if she used one so carelessly.
Not a single one of them above mid-range in Energy Storage.
“Well, are you?” Another push by their erstwhile leader.
“Some call me that,” Wu Ying admitted. It was a stupid title, one he hated to acknowledge. But his shame was likely going to die in the next few moments. “Do you have business with me?”
A grin. A shift in balance from behind, feet brushing packed earth. The woman to the right lowered her hands, little glints of metal appearing between her fingers.
That was enough.
Wu Ying unsheathed his sword, the blade flicking out in Dragon unsheathes its Claws. He drop-stepped to the right, borrowing a touch of the howling northern wind to give him speed. The blade cut across a neck, tearing open arteries and throat. Then the ever-changing western wind to spin him around, combined with Dragon paints the Sunset to take a hand that had extended for his unguarded back, a dagger—a cike ’s weapon—dropping with the dismembered limb. Another shift, another form, another cut.
Three breaths.
Then Wu Ying returned to where he started, shaking the traces of blood off his sword. His enemies crumpled to the ground, and he pushed his chi outward, covering himself and his aura. The rain of blood fell around him, sliding off his aura to drip to the earth and strengthen the plants that lay beneath.
Three breaths, four enemies.
And another damn delay.

Release Date: 1. Dezember 2021

Pages: 350

Genre: Cultivation Fantasy

eBook ISBN: 9781990491344

Language: English

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