Mystique Soul: A Cultivator's Flame
Chapter 122: Lost...

Chapter 122: Lost...

Feng Jiao Xue’s grip tightened on the back of the unconscious mage’s collar.

She didn’t look at him. Didn’t even glance down to check if he was still breathing. He was.... barely.

Feng Jiao Xye had left just enough of him intact to keep his heart beating. Not out of mercy, but purpose.

If they want to find out what’s going on,she will get answers from him. Through any means necessary.

Her boots scraped across the broken floor, crunching glass, ash, and the brittle edge of magic-scorched stone.

The underground chamber still pulsed faintly with residual energy, like a beast breathing in its sleep, whispering threats long after the battle ended.

She followed the trail left behind. faint wisps of qi that lingered like scent trails in the air. She can guess Chen Rong had done it on purpose. Cleverl. Even half-conscious, he’d known Feng Jiao Xue would need to know where they had headed. She can also faintly see claw marks Mo Tianze no doubt scratched on the wall for her to follow.

Dragging the mage behind her, she stepped over crumbling thresholds, pushed past a collapsed door, and moved through the narrow tunnels that twisted beneath the city’s underbelly like veins clogged with secrets.

Her body ached. Her arm throbbed with a burn that felt deep enough to reach bone. Her left shoulder had stopped responding entirely, she must’ve torn something. Her ribs screamed with every breath. Blood stained her side. But her face remained impassive.

Pain was expected. She didn’t fear it.

What she feared was silence.

The kind that grew louder the closer she came to the exit.

The trail of qi led her to a stone wall. She pressed her hand against it, pushing her qi through the cracks until a hidden mechanism gave way with a click. The wall shifted, revealing a stairwell steeped in dust and darkness.

The mage groaned faintly as she hauled him up.

"Tsk. Toublesome" she murmured coldly as she knocked the guy out again with a fist on his head to prevent him from causing trouble.

At the top of the stairwell, another hidden door opened, this time into an alley.

Day had settled above the city, but the usual hum of life felt distant here. "This must be one of the less populated alley" she thought. It was quiet, still. But you can hear the distant buzz of the city. Back to its chaotic, lively state. As if last night wasn’t a bloodbath, if you can even call it that. Too used to violence to have even been bothered with what they might have perceived from what happened underground.

She stepped into the alley and froze.

Chen Rong was slumped against a wall, blood matting his dark hair, his robes torn open across the chest where a deep gash glistened under the moonlight. Lin Feng sat beside him, arm twisted at an unnatural angle, trying to cover him with his coat despite his own head wound dripping steadily down his cheek. Xia Lian was sprawled on the ground, breathing shallow, one leg twisted beneath her.

Feng Jiao Xue dropped the mage.

Her boots echoed as she crossed the space in three quick strides, crouching beside Chen Rong.

"What happened?" she asked. Her voice was low but sharp, slicing through the silence.

Chen Rong’s eyes fluttered open. "We... we thought we’d made it out... The street was clear. I thought it was over." His voice trembled. "But then someone else came."

"Who?"

"I don’t know," Chen Rong choked. "She wore a mask. She didn’t say a word. Just... appeared. We tried to fight her off but... She was too fast, faster than even you."

Hee forced his eyes open wider, struggling to speak through the pain. "After... after she disappeared with him... I- I managed to activate a signal flare from my ring. It wasn’t much, just a burst of our guild’s crest, but it was enough. Some of the guild members stationed nearby felt it and came. They found us. Took the others away to heal."

Feng Jiao Xue stilled, her eyes flicking toward Lin Feng and Xia Lian, both now conscious but barely clinging to awareness.

"We wanted to wait for you. Wei Jian went with them already" Chen Rong continued, shame thick in his throat. "We told them you’d be coming from the underground chamber. They offered to take us too, but I... I couldn’t leave without knowing you made it back." He clenched his bloody fists in his lap. "It was the only thing I could do."

There was a silence between them, heavy and bitter.

Then his voice dropped to a whisper.

"If I were stronger... I could’ve stopped it. I saw it coming, I felt that she wasn’t normal but I- I’m sorry, Jiao Xue. You helped us bring Wei Jian back but... I couldn’t protect your friend. I couldn’t protect Mo Tianze."

He bowed his head, shoulders shaking. "He was right in front of me. I saw her hand reach through space, just pull him away like he was nothing. And I- I just stood there."

Feng Jiao Xue watched him quietly, her expression unreadable.

Her shadow stretched across him as she moved to his side.

"You’re alive," she said at last, her tone cool, but not unkind. "That’s all that matters."

He didn’t respond. His shame was too deep to lift.

Feng Jiao Xue didn’t try to comfort him further. She didn’t believe in empty reassurance.

Instead, she turned and rose slowly, surveying the alley with sharp eyes. There were signs of struggle, burned stone, cracked walls, smeared blood. But no body. No trail.

Feng Jiao Xue’s jaw tightened. "Any idea where they went?"

Chen Rong looked at her, helpless, ashamed.

"I don’t know."

Feng Jiao Xue rose slowly, surveying the alley with sharp eyes. There were signs of struggle, burned stone, cracked walls, smeared blood. But no body. No trail.

No... Mo Tianze.

She turned toward Lin Feng. "You saw her, right? What did she look like?"

He nodded stiffly. "A magician. Powerful. But strange. Her spells didn’t feel right. too silent. She used something that cut the space itself."

Feng Jiao Xue narrowed her eyes. "Spatial magic?"

"Maybe... maybe worse."

Her fingers twitched near her whip. The air around her shifted subtly, her qi flaring out like the chill before a storm.

"This mage" she said, glancing back at the unconscious man. "I suppose its a good thing I refrained from killing him"

"The girl..." Xia Lian rasped from the ground. "She said something... "

Feng Jiao Xue turned toward her. "Speak."

Xia Lian coughed, blood flecking her lips. "Something about the city lord going to be pleased....."

City lord. Feng Jiao Xue felt her stomach twist, not in fear, but fury. She should have been even more careful. She should’ve known.

She should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy.

’It’s her fault...’ Cold, daunting fury blazed in her eyes. ’She shouldn’t have sent them away. She was afraid of accidentally hurting them, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to control her blood lust and hurt him. In the end...’

"She failed him too. She couldn’t protect him"

She turned to the wall behind them, "Bang!!!" A dent formed on the wall, hard, her knuckles cracking against stone.

But the pain steadied her.

Feng Jiao Xue crouched again, checking Chen Rong’s wound. "You’re losing too much blood. I need to stop the bleeding."

"Use the... sealing powder in my pouch," Chen Rong whispered, barely conscious.

Feng Jiao Xue found it, tore the packet open with her teeth, and packed the wound with practiced hands. Chen Rong whimpered but didn’t cry out. Lin Feng muttered something under his breath, but he was too exhausted to even flinch as Feng Jiao Xue reset his dislocated arm with a brutal twist.

They couldn’t move.

Not like this.

And Mo Tianze was still missing.

"Rest," she said. "I’ll set a flare."

She moved quickly, placing talismans along the edges of the alley, using her qi to activate the symbols. A soft blue light pulsed upward, too subtle for enemies, but strong enough for their allies if they were searching.

Then she stood by the unconscious mage again, staring at him with dark, unreadable eyes.

She crouched and patted his pockets. Found a vial of blue dust, some coins, and a folded parchment with runes she didn’t recognize. She slipped the parchment into her robes.

Her expression hardened.

He might know where the masked magician came from.

And if Mo Tianze had been taken...

Then she would take him back.

Alive.

If not...

Feng Jiao Xue’s whip uncoiled as she stood, letting the thorned length trail behind her like a predator’s tail. She gazed at the rooftops above the alley, then the stars peeking through the haze.

’This city will be his graveyard’

She closed her eyes.

Let herself feel.

Qi. Movement. Breaths.

She felt the injured behind her, shallow and weak.

’THERE’ She felt it. Though Feng Jiao Xue removed the collar, he never stopped wearing it as an anklet. She can feel the general direction of his whereabouts.

She felt the man at her feet, steady, unconscious.

And far, far in the distance...

Nothing.

Where there should’ve been a spark. Mo Tianze’s qi, there was absence. Not death. Not yet.

Just void.

She opened her eyes. Cold. Focused.

"Jiao Xue..." Chen Rong whispered. "What will you do?"

Feng Jiao Xue didn’t answer right away.

She moved to the end of the alley, pulled her sword from her back, and stabbed it into the ground.

A silent promise.

Then she walked back to the mage, grabbed him by the collar, and began to drag him again, away from the alley, toward the nearest safehouse.

Chen Rong’s voice called weakly, "Where are you going?"

"To get answers."

"But what about Mo Tianze...?"

Feng Jiao Xue paused, turning her head slightly. Her hair was wild, streaked with blood and sweat, her eyes hollow like a moonless night.

"I’m bringing him home," she said softly. "He belongs to my side and the only one who can take Mo Tianze from me." Her eyes frosted even more. "Is only Mo Tianze himself and no one else."

’She will only let go of those she cares about if they, themselves, wants to leave her’

And she kept walking, dragging her prisoner into the dark, toward the city’s undercurrents, where whispers grew sharp and even shadows had secrets.

Behind her, the flare continued to glow. Steady. Unyielding.

Just like her.