Depthless Hunger
Chapters 465-468

Kai had only seen a few of the large teleportation techniques during his time on Cloudspire, but he knew they were used to take multiple people across large distances. The swirl of amber energy grew larger, and human-shaped forms began to glow within it, before the qi suddenly folded in on itself and vanished.

It left behind a group of about a dozen cultivators: Yul Wei Ren with his usual bodyguard Grandpa Wan Fei, as well as ten Earth Souls. Their robes were covered in blue or green blood, and one of them was still holding a severed tree branch that bled like flesh. Most of the group looked surprised to have been teleported, but Yul Wei Ren turned to stare at his father and stamped a foot.

"What are you doing, father? We were about to destroy the last of them!"

"I brought you here to tell of your accomplishments this far." The Masterful Crown patriarch spoke to his son, but his cold gaze never left Nymidria. "What have you done, at my command?"

"We annihilated the dryad village!" Yul Wei Ren declared proudly. "It burns even now, and we stack their bodies like-"

"No!" Nymidria let out a scream and unleashed another spurt of power, but Zae Clen Ban made a gesture and swept it away with a burst of wind. The impact cracked several of her branches and she sagged again around the spear of qi through her body.

The sight nearly made Kai leap to her defense, even though he knew that the dryad matriarch was mortally wounded. What stopped him was Omilaena, who caught his eye from half-way across the battlefield. Instead of saying anything, she just glanced toward the buried dome where Zae Zin Nim was still struggling to break through.

Had they bought her enough time? Despite everything that had happened, it hadn't been very long, not by the standards of cultivation.

The Masterful Crown patriarch stroked his beard with a pleased expression. "This is what happens to all those who oppose us... and our vengeance is not yet complete. You still have family back home, don't you? More of your kind related to you by blood or root or whatever you have."

"I barely remember them," Nymidria said, though she sounded defeated and put no emotion into her lie.

"They will die all the same. We will slaughter them and whisper your name to each, to let them know that you are responsible for their eradication."

"Yes!" Yul Wei Ren lifted his fists into the air. "That will show them!"

"And you." The patriarch turned on his son, and suddenly the young master didn't look so triumphant. "I trusted you to fix the Verdant River sect's problems. I hoped that you would grow up a little in the process. Instead you made an even bigger mess of everything."

"Father, I... I did my best, but they..."

"Silence, no excuses. As punishment, you will have to carry out one more eradication. Only after you have killed every last one of this traitor's clan and kin are you permitted to return from Deadwaste."

"That isn't fair! I shouldn't have to go to that miserable shithole! I-"

"Enough!"

When the patriarch hurled another teleportation talisman, Kai was already moving. It all happened so quickly, yet he felt as though he had too much time to think. The patriarch claimed that the talisman could take them across the ocean, presumably to the Southern Reaches. If the cultivators arrived there, they would easily slaughter their way through all the dryads in Nymidria's family, and no doubt slake the young master's anger on many more. No one would be able to stop them, and with a Sky Soul, even the Frontier elites might not be enough.

Any damage to the talisman would break it, so Void Gaze might just teleport them early. Kai had to prevent it from transporting the cultivators, so he streaked forward, trying to snatch the talisman out of the air. The cultivators noticed too late, Grandpa Wan Fei first and the others later. Kai's claws closed around the jade talisman, and for a moment he thought he had been successful.

Then the world vanished.

.

..

.

As if things weren't bad enough, Omilaena watched Kai disappear into the swirl of teleportation. She knew what he had intended to do, but he had been too late. Whatever that teleportation technique had been, it was far beyond her, and now all of them were beyond reach.

Which meant she was in a very grim position. Unless something happened to alter the balance, Kai's altruism could have gotten them all killed.

Bitterness welled up in Omilaena, but she tried to draw it into her poison. They didn't have very many viable paths left, so she needed to focus on them. With so many opponents dead or seriously injured - the matriarch could potentially survive her poisoning - they might be able to escape.

And the life of Nymidria... well, that didn't bind them anymore. The dryad slumped over the spear that impaled her body and trunk, the last of her life ebbing away. There was nothing left in her glassy eyes but hopelessness, which Omilaena knew was exactly what they wanted. The Masterful Crown clan was just like every other force that tried to dominate the world.

To her surprise, Omilaena actually felt a tug of something in her chest as she looked at Nymidria. This was what she got for feeling anything for anyone.

"My son!" Patriarch Yul looked outraged, as if it was impossible to believe that someone could have interrupted his wild actions. "Who was that brute? Could he threaten my son?"

"Do you have another talisman?" Zae Clen Ban asked.

"Of course not! Do you have any idea how much time it takes to formulate one?"

"Then there is no way to follow them. I suggest that we-"

"Didn't you hear?" Patriarch Yul turned on him furiously. "My son is at risk!"

"Meanwhile, my daughter is hiding somewhere on this battlefield, fighting against me." Zae Clen Ban turned away from the dryad matriarch with a disgusted look. "This one tried to shield her, but I don't think she escaped. Even as muddied as her soul has become, I know my daughter. We-"

Without warning the golden crown gleamed brighter and a concentrated beam shot out at the Brightwind patriarch. He deflected it with a shining sphere and turned, throwing out a line of wind. It sent rubble flying across the battlefield, but between the two patriarchs that was nothing more than a slap.

"This is why I refused to work together at first," Zae Clen Ban said. "Don't be childish about this."

It looked as though the two patriarchs might really come to blows - with almost everyone else removed from the battlefield, they clearly didn't feel that they had any rivals. Omilaena spotted Jackal Thirteen on one side of the battlefield, edging backward cautiously, and managed to find Xir Xan Khan on the other side, crawling out of a pile of rubble. He could potentially cause trouble too, if he used his connection to either leader.

What was the rational choice? Before she'd joined these two idiots, Omilaena would have simply run, but she wouldn't abandon Zin Nim. The problem was that she was still somewhat armored within the dead dryad's root dome, apparently hidden from her father and the others. Going directly to her would only reveal her location, and there was no guarantee Omilaena could get her and still retreat safely.

The patriarchs clashed once, then Zae Clen Ban dissolved into light and shot into the sky. Omilaena was puzzled for a moment, since it made no sense for him to run... and then the clouds began to move.

These were no storm clouds, instead bright white puffs that glowed even whiter as the power surged within them. They began to shift together, gaining new definition, forming a giant torso in the sky. Two great limbs emerged on either side, fingers extending with a crack of thunder. Finally Zae Clen Ban's face coalesced as the figure absorbed all the clouds in the sky, becoming a luminous white giant that seemed to loom over the earth.

Even Patriarch Yul, who should have been at a similar level, looked taken aback. His golden crown shone even brighter, as bright as the clouds, but they couldn't do more than resist. The cloud body was a presence technique in and of itself, and as the air closed around Omilaena, she realized that her last resistance had run out. She bit her tongue to draw a bit of blood and forced herself to move, summoning another syringe to escape.

"We can deal with your brat later," Zae Clen Ban said in the voice of the heavens. "First we deal with mine."

Then his hand swept down... not toward the rubble, toward Omilaena. She desperately tried to finish her syringe and it went haywire in the raw power, becoming a crumpled mess of metal that fell from her numb fingers.

The hand that closed around her was raw power, not cloud. Even the top two fingers were enough to crush her body, but they only applied painful force as she was drawn upward. She ascended skyward so quickly that she became light-headed, and the glowing form all around her nearly made her blind... but she could still see the face, large enough to swallow her whole.

"You," Zae Clen Ban rumbled. "Where is my daughter?"

"I'll... tell you... if you let up..." Omilaena managed to say.

The hand relaxed marginally and she managed to take a breath.

"While you were fighting... I managed to hide her... all the way... up my cunt."

Zae Clen Ban actually looked stunned for a moment, as if he didn't understand what she'd just said. Then his eyebrows knitted together in rage, like a perverse copy of his daughter, and the hand squeezed around her. Omilaena couldn't stop herself from crying out in pain.

"How long do you want to spend dying?" Zae Clen Ban asked. "I can make this very painful for you."

Before Omilaena could answer, a dark streak tore through her vision. It seemed to soak in the light, as if it absorbed the brilliant clouds with its mere presence. Omilaena's eyes widened as she suddenly realized that it was Zin Nim.

What had she done to herself?

Chapter 466: Blackblood Deviation

The raw power was raging within her body now and Zae Zin Nim felt as though she would explode. All of her spiritual power centers were filled to bursting, ready to overflow into some new form, but her physical body was out of balance.

Her spouses were risking their lives around her, Nymidria was tearing herself apart root by root, and she couldn't do it.

With the abilities and resources she had accumulated, she could purify herself in an instant... and she rejected that path. For all its alleged benefits, it would leave her slightly weaker in the very moment when she needed to be strong. Following that path would make her just like all the other cultivators who stood beneath her father, kowtowing to him, never able to measure up.

She needed to be something more.

The strain of maintaining that horrible balance for so long made Zae Zin Nim cough up a mouthful of blood. It spilled across the ground, unnaturally black, yet it didn't horrify her. No, she didn't want to purge the Blackblood Physique, but how could she absorb it without destroying herself?

Taking another slow breath, she attempted to let the power escape from her veins. In theory, according to everything she and Omilaena had explored, if the blood unified with her body, it would leave her strengthened overall. Yet as it spilled into her flesh, she could feel it was ruining her...

Or was it?

Zae Zin Nim left her cultivator's position and lay on her back, eyes closed. Letting the black blood spill into her body went against every technique she'd learned in the Pureflower sect. Her skin was perfect jade, but it couldn't hide such black blood forever. But what was she, an ornamental wife or a cultivator? Was she really going to turn aside from true power because of her complexion?

So she began to release her control, letting the power course through her. She didn't care what the others thought, in fact she would be glad if they stopped lusting after her. The only people who mattered were her spouses, and they would still care for her. They would fix her, if necessary.

Keeping her eyes closed, Zae Zin Nim embraced the absorption method wholeheartedly. Instead of just letting the power spill out from her veins, she felt it coursing through every artery, down into the smallest blood vessels of her body, feeding her flesh with the dark blood. The spiritual component flowed outward as well, blazing through her meridians. It coated them with darkness, ruining her purity in one sense, but also opening up new pathways.

At first she had interpreted the flood as pain, but when she let go, she realized that was wrong. It just pure intensity, only painful because she was trying to hold back. It was like a fusion of the most overwhelming sensations she had ever experienced, some combination of joy and cultivation and orgasm. All of it resonated deeply with her body, which transformed as if it had wanted to do this all along.

How long did it go on? She utterly lost track of time, she just eventually knew that she was lying on her back, at peace.

She didn't dare to look at herself or think about that. Instead she simply searched within her soul, and what she saw first horrified her.

E-0

>

E-0? She knew of cultivators who had ruined a Physique transformation or permanently crippled their development, but she didn't think it was possible to stay at the same stage. Yet her body felt whole and strong, and she forced down the panic, and gradually allowed herself to see her soul truly.

Name: Zae Zin Nim

Total Power: 1681

Cultivation: Earth Soul 62% (524)

*Heavenly Sash: Cultivation +10% (52)

Coldfire Corona: 32 (396)

Pure Yin Shroud: Spinel Rank (245)

True Blackblood Physique: E-0 (400)

Soul Level: 8 (64)

>

She was still baffled by how she had transitioned from E-9 to E-0, but the raw Power numbers didn't lie. She now saw "True Blackblood Physique", which offered her an insane 400 Power. It had absorbed the Blackblood Shadow, but the total was still higher than she would have normally held at D rank.

Finally she opened her eyes and sprang to her feet. When she examined her hands, she was horrified to see that her skin had turned an unnatural gray. She would have called it sickly, except that she felt more alive than she had ever been before. Her arms were the same gray... worse, her fingernails had turned black.

No, none of that mattered. Zae Zin Nim took up a combat stance and focused only on her strength.

Whatever she looked like, her flesh pulsed with untold strength. Her body had been reforged, the way she knew the strongest cultivators could accomplish, and she was now a partially spiritual being. Despite the fact that her meridians had been coated in darkness, the qi flowed through them much easier than before. When she tried to summon the strength of the Pure Yin Shroud, it seemed to emanate from every fiber of her being. Even the Coldfire Corona flowed to her palm more easily.

This wasn't merely the Blackblood Physique that had been placed into her body by rivals in order to ruin her progress... this was her Blackblood Physique. She could tell that it wasn't finished growing, either: now that the power was no longer restrained to her blood vessels, no longer fighting against her pale flesh, it could strengthen itself further.

Zae Zin Nim began moving in a familiar training routine, marveling at the joy of moving her body. She wanted to test herself in every way, see her limits before she...

Then she heard her wife scream.

All at once she abandoned the internal joy, her mind returning fully to the battlefield. When she leapt, she shattered through the dome of roots and stone without even feeling it, flying high into the air on strength alone. As soon as she was out, she saw that the battle had changed.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Her father loomed overhead, embodied in the clouds... that could only be the Transcendent Brightwind Visage, the legendary full height of his power. His strength was higher than hers, but not that much higher, and he was gripping her wife in one hand.

When Zae Zin Nim tried to move, she slid through the air without thinking about it: the flight abilities that had been beyond her, that should have required a Sky Soul cultivation base, simply flowed from her body as if it ignored earthly laws. She shot through the air far faster than she had expected, almost so fast that she was unprepared, yet her combat instincts acted automatically.

She raised a hand and sliced through the heavenly arm, severing it into clouds.

As her father's enormous visage fell back in shock, Zae Zin Nim leapt to her wife and swept her up in her arms. Omilaena had been in great pain, but it seemed she only had a few bones broken at most.

The other woman stared at her in surprise, and Zae Zin Nim felt a moment of anxiety, then her wife leaned in to kiss her. That was all she needed... her tension and worry over what she had become bled away.

A kiss would not, however, stop her father. He had recovered from her arrival and his remaining cloud arm swept forward to swat them both. Zae Zin Nim shifted Omilaena and turned just enough to thrust a palm against the enormous hand that came toward her like a white wall.

Though the impact jarred her body and sent her hurtling downward, Zae Zin Nim was surprised to find herself uninjured. She landed on her feet, barely even needing to bend her knees to absorb the impact, and her arm was still strong. Overhead, her father stared at her in horror.

"What have you done to yourself?" he demanded. "You were my beautiful girl, and now..."

"I'm not yours anymore!" Zae Zin Nim shouted into the heavens, to him and to all the patriarchs who were watching the conflict in shock.

Instead of speaking further, Zae Clen Ban gathered himself again and the Transcendent Brightwind Visage began to reform. The clouds remained brilliantly white, but they crackled with his wrath like a storm. Somewhere within the clouds, her father was apoplectic. As soon as he regained his full offensive capacity, he would strike to kill, as she had seen so many times before.

"Use this." Omilaena slipped down to one knee, but on the way handed her a syringe. "You decided to absorb the blood fully, right? This is the best I can do to take that one notch further."

Since Zae Zin Nim was already far past caution, she injected herself immediately. She felt the surge of power, one that would once have burst her blood vessels, but now her body sang with it. As she saw the heavenly body overhead drawing back, she placed her hands together and drew on all her strength at once.

When the enormous palm thundered downward, Zae Zin Nim met it with a Coldfire Palm of equal size. The two forces crashed together, sending out shockwaves that destroyed both physical and spiritual foundations, knocking away all other cultivators. Her feet broke through the stone underneath her, but her body didn't give way and she let out a cry as she pushed back.

Even with her new strength and the temporary boost, she wasn't powerful enough to overwhelm a cultivator like her father. But the two palm techniques exploded against one another, raging until they evaporated and left an open sky.

The divine white form was faltering, one arm and shoulder gone. Zae Zin Nim still stood, panting for breath and staring upward. She wanted to keep fighting, to see if she could beat him, but she realized that Nymidria had already died and there would be more losses unless she acted strategically.

"Where's Kai?" she asked as she helped Omilaena to her feet.

"Teleported out," Omilaena said grimly. "We'll have to talk later, but for now, let's get the fuck out of here."

"Agreed." She willed her body to move and again flitted away.

Even at her speed, she couldn't escape the patriarchs so quickly. Patriarch Yul gave a wordless cry and hurled his presence toward her... and it swept over her body harmlessly. She didn't have a presence technique of her own to fight it, yet she seemed immune to the binding technique.

That moment allowed her to escape the perimeter, but she was far from free. She saw there were other cultivators dissolving into light to chase after her, and her father's visage was looming closer as it crossed the sky.

Zae Zin Nim stopped looking at any of them and focused everything on speed.

As the teleportation faded, before his sight had even returned, Kai skidded over dust and knew that he had returned to Deadwaste.

He had never seen the high hills around him before, and the vibrant trees were nothing like Goralia. But the air itself was familiar: even though it was desolate compared to the rich energies of Rosemount or Cloudspire, the dominant mana reminded him of home. Had they really teleported so far?

Behemoth's Heart was pumping rapidly, bringing him back to focus, but it couldn't fix the purely mental reeling. If he had really been sent so far...

Yul Wei Ren, Grandpa Wan Fei, and all the Earth Souls were standing around him. It looked like Kai had recovered first, though the old man had endured it well and was preparing for a fight. The young master pitched over and vomited, while the Earth Souls were beginning to recover. If he had acted in that moment, he could have killed many of them, but the enormity of his mistake and its potential consequences slowed him.

"Get him!" someone screamed, and the Earth Souls tried to create a binding formation.

Kai had been straining Banchlain's Aura against patriarchs for the entire battle, so it exploded out with excessive force. These Earth Souls weren't weak, so none collapsed, but the brief flare of his aura utterly destroyed their attempt at a formation and they scattered, retreating in all directions.

"How do we get back?" Kai ignored the fleeing cultivators and focused on Yul Wei Ren and his bodyguard.

"We don't." Yul Wei Ren flopped into the dirt and pressed his hands to his head. "It's a punishment, didn't you hear? I have to kill even more stupid idiots."

"But what happens when you're done? Your father must have a way to pull you back."

"Ugh, I wish. Once he left me in the Northern Expanse for half a year because I deflowered some important maiden. Even if I had a way to contact him, he won't change his mind. Once he gets an idea in his head he-"

"Shut up!" Kai started walking in his direction and the young master screamed and began scrambling back. "This is important, you little brat, tell me h-"

Before he could take another step, Grandpa Wan Fei collided with him. The old man definitely hadn't gotten weaker since they last fought, and his shoulder ramming charge was so fast Kai couldn't even block. It didn't hurt much, but it drove them both over the hilly landscape, and the old man gripped around his waist to bind him and smash him into something.

Kai brought up his knee, striking the older man's chest, but his Physique could take it. Infuriated by this distraction, he generated two Manticore Quills and stabbed them down into the man's back, intending to just finish him.

But he'd forgotten that, even though Grandpa Wei Fan behaved like a servant, he was the patriarch of the Deepriver clan. The quills tore his robes, but failed to penetrate his qi-reinforced skin. Worse, his choice of attack gave the old man a chance to smash him into a hillside and then deliver a series of skull-jarring punches.

When the next punch came his way, Kai opened his mouth to bite it. He didn't have Isulfr's Bite prepared in his soul, but Grandpa Wei Fan must have sensed something monstrous, because he pulled his next punch. In that moment, Kai kicked him in the chest and knocked him away.

That gave him time to get up, but his anger was fading. There was no point fighting this group, much less this old man, when Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena could be fighting for their lives back on Cloudspire. But if there wasn't a talisman to take them back...

"Is there really no way back?" Kai demanded. The patriarch shifted into a defensive stance, ready to fight again, but answered with a question.

"You are worried for your comrades?"

"Of course I am!"

"And," Grandpa Wan Fei said very carefully, "if there was a way back, would you take it and allow us to complete our mission?"

Kai's rage finally stumbled to a halt. This group of cultivators had already slaughtered an unknown number of dryads, and those had been growing on Cloudspire. The dryads on Deadwaste would have even fewer defenses, despite the fact that they were completely innocent of the entire business. Would he sacrifice his wives for the sake of strangers? No. But since he had already been thrown across the world, it would be wrong to ignore them.

"I can't let you do that," Kai said. His body felt heavy, as if all the aches and weariness from the battle were finally coming to roost. Behemoth's Heart kept him moving, but his metaphorical heart was tired. "You know these people are innocent. You're too smart to believe otherwise."

"It is not a matter of innocence," the old man said. "I will protect the young master and do as commanded."

"Ugh." Kai threw up his hands. "I don't suppose the Masterful Crown clan has your son kidnapped or something?"

Grandpa Wan Fei didn't answer at first, staring at him strangely before speaking in a lower tone. "You imply that you would help save him, because it would remove me as your opponent?"

"I just can't believe that someone as honorable as you is stuck playing babysitter to a fool. Why would you take any of their orders?"

"You understand nothing. I accept that barbarians have a sort of self-respect, but this has nothing to do with the ties that bind civilization. I am responsible for the Deepriver sect, I am bound to the Masterful Crown clan, and that means that I must serve. To believe otherwise is simply ignorant."

"So you're telling me I need to kill you, then?" Kai raised his fists, and despite his exhaustion, they began to form into claws.

Instead of answering, the old man dissolved into light and streaked toward the horizon. Kai let out an enraged growl and burst after him, pushing Thunderbird's Wings as hard as he could, but the light pulled away from him. As fast he could travel, these greater flight techniques weren't bound by stamina or even friction.

Once he realized it was hopeless, Kai dropped to the ground and landed heavily, skidding for many paces before he came to a halt. The hills looked the same in all directions, with unfamiliar trees and plants... even giant mushrooms he'd never seen before. He knew absolutely nothing about this environment, so he didn't even know where to start.

No, an instant later he realized that was untrue. He shouldn't think like a Deadwaste native, since he had no experience in the Southern Wastes, he needed to think like a cultivator.

When he expanded his spiritual senses, he was surprised at how easily they swept over leagues, as if the thin air provided no resistance. There were various beings with some amount of power, but the cultivators stuck out like sore thumbs. Now he understood how the Brightwind cultivators had been able to find Zae Zin Nim despite all her precautions.

It seemed like they had split in multiple different directions, either as part of their plan or simply in fear of him. His fight with Grandpa Wan Fei had lasted long enough for them to spread out over a significant area. He didn't know if they would really start slaughtering immediately, but there was no sense in wasting time finding out.

Picking the nearest cultivator, Kai made a beeline for his position. It didn't take long before he spotted a town in the distance, much smaller and less fortified than the Goralian cities. He could see the cultivator already, fighting at the edge of the town.

No, it wasn't really a fight, it was a mockery. The average level of strength in the Southern Reaches was higher than Goralia, but this was still a relatively unimportant town. Most of the people he saw there - a mix of humans, dryads, and others he couldn't name - only had around 50 Power, and even their strongest only had a little over 100.

All their attacks did nothing, snuffing out against the cultivator's aura. He had already killed one dryad and he waded into the crowd, knocking people aside with cruel laughter as he advanced on a second.

"Send out all the tree people and the rest of you can live!" the cultivator shouted. "There's no need for all of you to throw your lives away!"

Some of the townspeople fled, but others tried to help the dryad woman escape and a few formed a brave and futile line. They hurled a large amount of mana fire into the cultivator's face, not harming him but briefly blinding him. He stopped, glowering, and began summoning a larger technique to incinerate the entire group.

Kai arrived the next second, claws going through the cultivator's chest. He wasn't using Tyrant's Claw, but compared to the patriarchs, this Earth Soul tore like paper. It was bloodier than Kai had intended, and he saw shock on the townspeople's faces, but there was no time for that.

"Are there more of them here?" Kai asked. "I only tracked this one."

"W-we didn't see a-any others..." an old woman stammered.

"Excuse me. There are more attacking other villages... I can't intercept them all, but..." Kai bent his legs and shot into the sky with the corpse still in his hands.

He shot upward, multiple shockwaves expanding from him as his wings grew out. Once he was high enough that the towns were just specks, he shifted Thunderbird's Wings to qi and hovered in the air. The other cultivators had spread out over a large distance, some of them trying to hide themselves. He intended to hunt them down, but until then...

"Cultivators!" Kai pushed qi into his voice and the word echoed over the landscape. He couldn't bellow over a battlefield like the patriarchs, but he could still project. "Your patriarch ordered you to kill, but consider one thing." He tore the cultivator's corpse in half and hurled the pieces to the ground in opposite directions. "He's half the world away... I'm right here."

After Kai finished speaking, there was only silence. The slight sound of wind moving at such a high altitude. He wasn't sure what he expected... they wouldn't be stupid enough to attack him, and he didn't expect them to surrender. But he also didn't feel any qi being used in all the surrounding villages, because they knew they were being hunted now.

It wasn't enough to stop them, but hopefully it would make them think twice. As Kai dropped back to the ground, he realized that he should have thought more about all the locals: he was a strange foreigner showing up and tearing people apart, then shouting incomprehensible challenges. They would be on their guards against the cultivators, but they might also fear him.

To his surprise, when he landed he saw a host of people looking toward him and smiling.

"I'm sorry," Kai said, "you don't deserve this, but they..."

"You're trying to stop those foreign folks, huh?" A dryad man peered up at him and nodded. "We won't get in your way. Anything we can do to help?"

Kai blinked in surprise, staring at all the optimistic faces. One of their own had died, and he saw anger or confusion there, but they didn't look at him in fear, despite what he'd done. In fact, half the corpse had landed outside their village in a gruesome splat.

"I'm, uh, sorry about that," Kai said with a vague gesture toward the body.

"Oh, don't worry about it," an old man with purple skin said. "You're a Goralian boy, eh? One of my daughters married one of you. Big lad, very loud, very angry. But you're good folks."

Heads nodded throughout the crowd and Kai realized that he truly was back on Deadwaste.

"Alright, there are eleven other people," he told the crowd. "They're all too strong for any of you to face, but their only mission is to hunt down dryads. Do you have root networks connecting towns? Warn everyone you can, and if anyone spots them, bring the information back to me..."

Even though he had just arrived, the people began to bustle about to obey. Kai finished giving orders and then turned back, staring west over the ocean.

He didn't know how long it would take to get back, or if it would be in time, but meanwhile he wouldn't let any of the enemy escape.

The cavern resolved slowly as tension and speed gave way to wakefulness. They had escaped successfully, and hidden well enough for rest, yet none of that was any comfort. As her mind returned to itself, Zae Zin Nim let out a sigh and stirred within her blankets.

"Kai..." Zae Zin Nim's relaxation faded as she remembered everything - Omilaena had explained more during their flight, but she only had time to think about it now. She got up, pulling blankets with her, and huddled up next to her wife, who was seated in the cavern beside her. "He's not back yet?"

"Even if he was, he wouldn't be able to find us." Omilaena pulled her closer and stroked her hair with one hand even while she manipulated a syringe in the other.

"So what is our new strategy? We can't fight that many patriarchs, much less my father..."

Omilaena chuckled. "On the contrary, I think that we proved that we can. Yes, we took serious risks and losses, but they weren't so superior. Especially now that you've unlocked more power... if we get Kai back, and I find a way to catch up to you two, I think we could take on even the Masterful Crown clan's forces."

"Maybe so." Just having rested and talking things over made Zae Zin Nim feel much better, shedding the old fear of her father - she had met him palm to palm, after all. "Kai will come for us, definitely. He'll probably try to bring things to help us. So we just need to survive until then, and gain as much power as possible."

"Agreed. I'm not sure what resources we can reach, but we have options. In terms of my power, I think targeting the Purple River sect is the most obvious, but I don't know that we can afford to travel that far."

"How much can we afford to travel at all? I want to go back to the dryad village... but even if they really killed everyone, they're probably watching just in case we return."

"I think it would be an unnecessary risk to return to any of our old locations." Despite her cold words, Omilaena was running fingers through her hair affectionately. "The one variable is the Krysali. If they stayed where they were, they were probably found and killed in the searches, but I'm willing to bet they left preemptively."

"Are you sure? They aren't used to how cultivators are..."

"On the contrary, they're extremely familiar with fighting people who are much stronger than them and willing to kill. In Cragrila's position, I'd head north, into the least explored forests. We should go the same way, though I don't know what our chances of finding them are."

"We can figure that out later." Zae Zin Nim leaned into her wife and was silent for a while.

There was so much to think about, but she didn't want to think at all. For a while, just a few minutes, she could rest here and simply exist. And for a time she really was at peace, almost descending into meditation as Omilaena's slender fingers ran through her hair. She closed her eyes and rested in a way completely different from sleep.

"You know, it makes absolutely no sense that your hair isn't tangled," Omilaena said. "It was getting whipped around by the wind the entire chase, and yet it's absolutely perfect."

"That can happen for higher stage cultivators," Zae Zin Nim murmured without opening her eyes. "Weren't you listening in the Pureflower sect? Your beauty becomes a fundamental part of your being."

"Honestly, I figured that was bullshit. But I think we need to explore this new you, huh?"

Zae Zin Nim had known it was coming and still groaned. But now that the possibility had been raised, she had no choice but to face it. Up to that point, she had been able to ignore how horribly dark her skin was and not think about the other changes, but now that the issue was raised, she couldn't put it out of her mind. She pulled away and rose to examine herself more carefully.

"Do I... look awful?" Zae Zin Nim asked. "I know I could look at myself, but..."

"Don't be ridiculous," Omilaena said as she rummaged around in her spatial satchel. "You've unlocked an enormous amount of new power, potentially unprecedented, and you're worried about whether or not you're pretty?"

"I'm married now! I want to be attractive to you and Kai."

"Well, take a look and tell me what you think." Omilaena pulled a surprisingly large mirror from her satchel, taller than Zae Zin Nim's entire body, and held it up for her.

She hadn't been twisted into any kind of abomination, yet she still recoiled. The most obvious change was her skin, which had become a shocking shade of gray. When she overcame her surprise, she could see that it was still clear and smooth, maybe even more so than before, but the change was so immense...

"Are you really self-conscious about this?" Omilaena rolled her eyes. "You are smoking hot, with skin most women could only dream of... are you really going to get upset because it can't be compared to a rock? I mean, honestly, you could still compare it to rocks, just different kinds."

"But... it's so..."

"Dark? What do you think about me?"

"It's not like that!" Zae Zin Nim screwed up her fists and scowled. "People can be your color, that's normal, but they're not supposed to be gray!"

"Who says? I think it's nice." Omilaena slid up behind her and began taking off her outer robe. "Come on, get past the first impression and really take a look at yourself."

"This i-isn't the time for that..."

"I'm serious, we need to do a proper inspection."

Zae Zin Nim removed her outer robe, which left her body still partially clothed. She had to admit, seeing herself as a whole instead of a first impression, it wasn't so bad. Her skin wasn't splotchy or uneven, it was a pure and untouched gray. When she raised her arms, they looked strong but still slender and feminine. If this was the way she looked now... she wouldn't be a jade beauty, but whose approval did she need, aside from her spouses?

Of course, that thought brought other things to mind and Zae Zin Nim began to squirm as her mind developed new insecurities. Before she could explore them, Omilaena looked at her - not improperly, through her goggles. First the old blue pair, then the new one she'd developed.

While she did so, Zae Zin Nim examined herself, taking comfort in her new strength.

Name: Zae Zin Nim

Total Power: 1681

Cultivation: Earth Soul 62% (524)

*Heavenly Sash: Cultivation +10% (52)

Coldfire Corona: 32 (396)

Pure Yin Shroud: Spinel Rank (245)

True Blackblood Physique: E-0 (400)

Soul Level: 8 (64)

>

"The completely baffling thing is that you're at E rank Physique," Omilaena said. "Because I would absolutely swear that you broke through, yet I'm also confident in what I'm seeing. As far as I know, that shouldn't happen."

"I know," Zae Zin Nim said, "I was so concerned that I might have diverged..."

"Oh, I don't think so. Use these and take a deeper look at your soul." Omilaena whipped off her goggles and fitted them, forcing her to examine her soul again.

Name: Zae Zin Nim

Physique: Blackblood Mortal (600 year lifespan)

Soul: Blackblood Mortal (300 year lifespan)

Supremacy: None

Talent Capacity: Coldfire Corona

Elemental Capacity: Unawakened

Essence Capacity: Pure Yin Shroud

Cultivation Capacity: Brightwind Cultivation

(Heavenly Sash Bond)

>

Zae Zin Nim gasped when she saw that her fundamental aspects had changed: both her Physique and Soul were listed as "Blackblood Mortal", and more importantly, her lifespan had multiplied by several times. According to this, her body would live for 600 years even while still mortal, which as far as she knew was unheard of.

"What... what does this mean?" she asked.

"I'm confident that this is a better fundamental path than the one you were taking before, and definitely better than the immortality elixirs." Omilaena shrugged. "But how your Physique fundamentally works, and why you stayed at the same rank... no real idea."

"Could it be like Kai's essence?" Zae Zin Nim suggested. "A lower stage means more potential for growth?"

"There's no particular reason to think it would, because there's no precedent for that. But there's also no precedent for someone at E rank to have such a huge amount of power from Physique, so we're in new territory."

"I suppose the thing to do is begin training physically. When I advance from E-0 to E-1, that will give us new information."

"Look at you, thinking analytically! Glad I had some effect." Omilaena smiled at her, but then her smile became salacious. "But I think there's another experiment to do first... they all said that purifying the Blackblood Physique was supposed to produce some new effect for dual cultivation, so I think we need to get to the bottom of that."

"That... that hardly seems like the highest priority!"

"On the contrary..." Omilaena slid up against her, urging her back down to the blankets, and Zae Zin Nim instinctively responded so they sank downward together. "There could be some very serious variable we haven't noticed yet."

"You're just making excuses now..."

"Do I need to?"

"I suppose not..." Zae Zin Nim relaxed into her wife's embrace, they melted into the blankets, and she indulged in a third sort of rest.