Tim stumbled back into his apartment, led by Riku, as Lia was sprinting as fast as she could away from the sect. Another massive boom rang out, causing Lia to turn around and see the massive ark. It looked like a long cylindrical spaceship but with ornate Chinese drawings carved into its hull. At over 2 kilometers long, Lia trembled seeing it. This definitely wasn't Earth.
"What's happening?" Riku asked Tim in a quiet voice.
"I just got out of the sect. I'm carrying a friend and we're headed towards the qi beast wilderness," Tim said, his voice strained as he tried to maintain focus on both bodies simultaneously.
Riku's face went pale. "This is my fault. If I hadn't gotten Varek involved with Lia, if we hadn't been flirting onlin"
"No," Tim cut her off firmly. "This isn't about social media drama. This is sect politics and resource wars. You said Varek was knocked out and caged?"
"Yes, by his True Disciple. He said they'd been planning this for years, that the Flowing Water Sect had grown weak." Riku's hands were shaking.
"I fear we have been taking everything as a game, Riku. This is insane, and if we aren't careful, Earth won't be safe either," Tim replied.
Sitting on the ark's top roof deck facing the shield were two Nascent Soul level cultivators. The sheer power radiating from them was suffocating, even from kilometers away. Lia could feel their presence like a weight pressing down on the entire region. These weren't just sect elders these were beings who had transcended mortal limitations, capable of splitting mountains with a gesture.
One was an elderly woman with silver hair flowing in the wind, her robes pristine white despite the destruction around them. The other was a middle-aged man whose very presence seemed to warp the air around him, crimson energy crackling between his fingers.
"The Flowing Water Sect's barrier is stronger than expected," the woman said, her voice carrying across the battlefield despite the distance. "Their ancestors built well."
"No matter," the man replied, raising his hand. "Even ancient formations fall before absolute power."
Lia's blood ran cold as she recognized what was about to happen. Nascent Soul cultivators could level entire cities. Whatever protective measures the sect had, they wouldn't hold against this level of force for long.
"We need to get further away," she gasped to Ami, who was barely conscious from the terror and speed of their flight. "Much further."
Val faced hundreds of Foundation Establishment members. "The elders will break the shield in time. We must send out several groups in every direction to chase down anyone who were outside or fled. They will be labeled as demonic cultivators that we had to exterminate, so it's important not a single one lives. The Baju Corporation has given us everyone's communicator locations. Chase them down." He directed groups to chase down the signatures and other cultivators to do general perimeter checks. Then he brought up Lia's location. "Sorry, Varek. You will learn that women come and go. A cultivator's life is a cruel one."
After 10 minutes, a sect member approached Val.
"Sir," one of the Foundation Establishment cultivators reported, "we're tracking multiple signatures heading south, but there's an anomaly. Two rings are moving together at high speed, but no life signatures are detected with them."
Val's eyes narrowed. "Decoy. Clever girl." He gestured to the display showing scattered dots across the map. "Focus search efforts on the western and northern sectors. She's likely trying to reach allied territory or..." His expression darkened. "The beast lands. Send Team Three east immediately. I will head west where she is most likely trying to get to the Gold Lions Federation."
Riku sat beside Tim on the couch, watching his blank eyes as he concentrated entirely on controlling Lia's body. His Earth form was completely motionless, barely breathing, while all his consciousness was focused on the desperate flight through the cultivation world.
"Tim," she whispered, not wanting to break his concentration but needing some reassurance. "Are you okay? You've been like this for twenty minutes."
His body didn't respond. In the cultivation world, Lia had his full attention. Lia's survival, Ami's survival, and possibly his own survival too rested on him escaping.
Riku felt helpless, watching her teacher's catatonic form while knowing that in another world, he was running for his life as a teenage girl pursued by potential god-like beings.
Lia was dramatically slowed by Ami. It was now, in a life-or-death moment as she was trying to flee, that she realized Lia had put everything towards cultivation. Lia had been so focused on cultivating she hadn't trained in many movement or fighting techniques. No wonder she couldn't protect her soul, Tim thought.
"Hey, I see someone trying to flee!" she heard a voice behind her yell.
Lia's heart dropped as she turned to see three Foundation Establishment cultivators in red and gold robes crashing through the forest behind them. They were gaining fast, and with Ami weighing her down, there was no way she could outrun them.
"Put me down," Ami gasped. "You can't escape carrying me."
"Never," Lia replied through gritted teeth, pushing her exhausted body harder. But she knew the truth, that without combat techniques or proper movement skills, they were both going to die.
Placing Ami down, Lia turned to make a last stand.
"Hide behind that tree and don't move," she whispered to Ami, who was trembling uncontrollably.
The three Flaming Saber disciples landed in the small clearing, their Foundation Establishment auras pressing down like physical weights. Lia could immediately tell they were all higher levels than her.Two were at level 3 and one at level 5.
"Well, well," the level 5 cultivator sneered, his hand resting on his saber hilt. "The famous ice queen herself. You're smaller than I expected. But much more pretty. I shall enjoy having fun with your corpse."
Lia raised her hands, qi swirling around her fingers as she prepared her water techniques. Her massive qi reserves might give her an edge, but without proper combat training, she was fighting blind.
"Three against one?" she said, trying to project confidence she didn't feel. "Not very manly."
"Orders are orders," the lead cultivator replied. "You're to be eliminated as a demonic cultivator. Nothing personal." Shit, Tim whispered. This isn't the movies. They aren't going to be baited into a one-on-one fight.
They moved simultaneously, sabers flashing in coordinated strikes. Lia barely managed to dodge the first attack, sending a desperate water whip toward the nearest opponent. It connected, but without proper technique behind it, it barely staggered him.
Tim's mind raced. Raw power wasn't enough. She needed skill, and she needed it now. In desperation, he tried to access more of Lia's buried memories, hoping the original owner had some combat experience he could draw upon.
The second saber strike came within inches of her neck.
"Hey, look what I found here," one of them called out.
Lia's blood turned to ice as she saw the cultivator dragging Ami out from behind the tree by her hair. The poor girl was crying, completely helpless against even the weakest Foundation Establishment cultivator.
"Let her go!" Lia snarled, her qi flaring wildly around her. "She's only a qi refining cultivator!"
"Oh, we know," the leader said with a cruel smile. "But orders are orders. No witnesses, no survivors. The demonic cultivators of the Flowing Water Sect have killed thousand of mortals, you see. Very tragic."
The cultivator holding Ami placed his saber against her throat. Lia was expecting some kind of negotiation. She expected they ask Lia to surrender if they let Ami go, but nothing came but a slow draw of the blade across her neck. Ami held her neck, gurgling blood as the light in her eyes started to dim. It wasn't quick like she expected. Ami dropped to her knees trying to cry out to Lia. Only more gurgling happened.
Lia stood in shock as they moved towards her. More memories flashed from Lia's brain. It had been her close friend since they were recruited at a young age. Lia and Tim both screamed out in pain, loss, anger. So many emotions tied into one.
Riku shook, hearing the scream from Tim. She had no idea what was happening in the cultivation world, but the raw anguish in that sound made her blood run cold.
In the cultivation world, something fundamental broke inside Lia. The sight of Ami's lifeless body, the casual cruelty, the complete disregard for innocent life. It shattered whatever self preservation Tim had been maintaining.
"You... you monsters," Lia whispered, her voice barely audible. Then louder, building to a roar: "YOU FUCKING MONSTERS!"
The massive qi reservoir in her dantian, normally carefully controlled and measured, exploded outward in a torrent of raw power. She summoned the staff from her ring. As soon as her hand touched it, it drank in the qi automatically, doubling it. The cultivators shook at the qi in the air. They were trained killers though. They had to finish this quick, charging in at full speed. Lia didn't give a fuck anymore. They would die even if it cost her, her life. Raising the staff in the air, her massive meridians channeled qi into the staff which formed a basic ice spell. Just before they got to her, massive ice spears filled with qi shot in every direction for hundreds of meters.
The forest exploded into a frozen wasteland. Ancient trees were impaled and shattered, the ground cracked and heaved as ice spears erupted from every surface. The three Flaming Saber disciples found themselves in a deadly maze of crystalline death.
The level 5 cultivator managed to deflect the first spear with his saber, but three more punched through his defenses, one piercing his shoulder, another his thigh. He screamed as the qi infused ice began spreading through his meridians, freezing them from the inside.
The other two were just as unlucky. One was impaled through the chest by a spear as thick as a tree trunk, his eyes wide with shock as he realized a "mere" level 1 had just delivered a killing blow. The second disciple tried to retreat, but the ice spears were everywhere. He dodged two and his head exploded as one struck in-between his eyes.
"Impossible," the wounded leader gasped, blood freezing as it left his mouth. "This power... it's not human..."
Lia stood in the center of the devastation, the staff crackling with residual energy, her purple eyes blazing with fury and grief. Around her, Ami's body lay still among the ice and destruction. A solemn reminder of what this world's cruelty had cost.
On Earth, Tim's body was shaking violently, Riku holding onto him as a life and death battle and the loss of a dear friend had hurt him more than anything in his life before.
Lia put her staff away and started stumbling further into the forest. Her overused meridians and drained dantian slowed her dramatically, but she was alive.
Further into the forest, the shadows began to weave together as a massive creature of wriggling shadows formed. "Ah, the water sect is falling, and with that my oath to remain here is broken." A deep, inhuman laugh rang out of the forest.