Schedule Update
Hey guys,
From now on, the release schedule here will be daily.
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The clinic door burst open.
"VICE GUILDMASTER, I'M HERE TO SAVE YOU!"
Lucy came through first with the expression of someone who had committed to an emergency and was seeing it through. Behind her, Lu Changcheng walked in at a comfortable pace with his hands in his pockets, looking entirely unsurprised.
They stopped.
On the other side of the reception desk, Chu Xinghe had both arms open and was moving toward Ren with clear intention. Ren had one foot raised and planted firmly against Chu Xinghe's chest, holding him at exactly arm's length.
"Doctor," Chu Xinghe said, pressing forward against the foot. "Please let me be your son. I'm asking sincerely."
"No," Ren said. He pushed harder. "Back up."
"I consent to this. Consent is important."
"I don't want your consent. I don't want anything from you. Step back."
"You saved my life. You changed my life completely. This is a reasonable response."
"A thank-you card would have been a reasonable response. This is something else."
Chu Xinghe adjusted his angle slightly, testing the left side. Ren's foot tracked him without any change in expression.
"Doctor," Chu Xinghe said, with complete sincerity. "I know I'm quite handsome. I understand if that makes this difficult."
"It makes nothing difficult. There is no difficulty here. There is only you, too close to me, and my foot, which will remain where it is."
"What about a hug? Just a brief one."
"You asked to kiss me thirty seconds ago."
"I've recalibrated since then."
"The answer is still no."
"A handshake."
"No."
"A formal bow."
"If you bow at me I will assume hostile intent."
Chu Xinghe stood back and considered the options available to him, which appeared to be narrowing.
Lucy had not moved from the doorway. Her hand was still on the door handle. She looked at Lu Changcheng.
Lu Changcheng was watching the scene with an expression of quiet, complete satisfaction, the expression of a man who had expected something broadly like this and was glad to see it in person.
"What the fuck," Lucy said, quietly.
"Language," Lu Changcheng said.
Lucy thought about the last forty minutes. She thought about Chu Xinghe's screaming coming through the clinic door. She thought about running to the lift with a shaking hand. She thought about calling the Guildmaster and describing, in a breathless rush, that she had heard the Vice Guildmaster screaming about sacrifice and something being inside his chest, and that she didn't know what was happening but it sounded serious. She thought about the Guildmaster listening to all of this and saying, calmly, that he would come take a look.
She thought about the scene in front of her.
Her face went red.
Chu Xinghe became aware of the two people standing in the doorway. His eyes went to Lucy, then Lu Changcheng, then down to Ren's foot, still raised between them.
He stepped back. He straightened his jacket, smoothed the front, and by the time he was done he was composed again, fully and completely, as if the last several minutes had been a different person's problem entirely.
He cleared his throat twice.
"Guild Master. Miss Lucy." He nodded at each of them. "What brings you here?"
Lucy's face went slightly redder.
"We came to check on you," she said, choosing her words carefully.
"I see." He looked at her expression. "I caused some concern."
"You were screaming about not being sacrificed."
"That was part of the process."
"You said get it off."
"Also part of the process."
A short pause.
"I apologize for alarming you," Chu Xinghe said. "I should have mentioned the appointment."
Lucy opened her mouth, closed it, and made a decision to process all of this later, somewhere else, with tea.
Lu Changcheng had been patient long enough. "How did it go?"
The composure shifted. What came through underneath was genuine and uncontained, something Chu Xinghe usually kept tightly managed finally finding no reason to stay managed.
"I got a new skill," Chu Xinghe said.
"What rank?" Lu Changcheng asked, keeping his voice easy.
"Mythical."
The room went quiet.
Lu Changcheng's expression held for a second and then something in it moved.
Beside him, Lucy's mouth had opened.
"Say that again," Lu Changcheng said.
"Mythical rank."
Lu Changcheng looked at Ren, who was standing behind the reception desk with both hands behind his back, expression giving nothing away.
"Again," Lu Changcheng said, to Chu Xinghe.
"It's a Mythical rank skill," Chu Xinghe said.
Lucy turned to Ren. "What did I miss?"
Ren said nothing. His expression remained exactly what it was.
Lu Changcheng was quiet for a moment. Then he smiled. "Spar with me."
. . .
The sparring room walls were solid titanium plate from floor to ceiling, a level of reinforcement that represented a significant portion of the construction budget and was completely justified given what sometimes happened in here. The air had a particular density to it, the quality of a room built to absorb force.
Chu Xinghe and Lu Changcheng stood facing each other in the center.
"I'll use a clone," Lu Changcheng said. "Suppressed to S-rank, one Mythical skill running. Fair ground to start."
"Thank you," Chu Xinghe said.
Lu Changcheng split. The clone stepped forward and squared up, looking exactly like him in every detail. The original stepped back to stand against the wall. He folded his arms and watched.
Ren moved to the wall on the opposite side. Lucy was a few feet away, watching the two figures in the center.
"Miss Lucy," Ren said.
She looked at him.
"Stand behind me. The impact radius on a Mythical-level exchange isn't comfortable to be inside."
Lucy looked at the figures in the center, assessed the phrase Mythical-level exchange, and moved behind him without discussion.
Thoughtful, she noted, and immediately set it aside.
"Ready?" Lu Changcheng called from the wall.
Chu Xinghe nodded.
"Three. Two. One."
The clone moved. It came fast, golden qi gathering in both palms, the pressure of it pushing through the room immediately. Even suppressed, a clone carrying one of Lu Changcheng's Mythical skills was not a small thing. The floor cracked in a line ahead of its approach.
Chu Xinghe stood still.
"Millionfold Slaughter Decree," he said. "All heads must fall."
The clone's head left its shoulders.
There was no sword, no arc, no motion Ren could track. The clone had been mid-charge with golden qi burning in both palms. Then the decree landed, and the head was gone, the body still carrying forward by momentum alone before it understood what had already been decided, and then it dissolved into light.
Silence.
Lu Changcheng's mouth was open.
Lucy had both hands pressed over hers.
Ren stood with his hands behind his back and looked at the space where the clone had been.
"What," Lucy said.
"Why is he that strong," Lu Changcheng said, almost to himself.
Chu Xinghe stood in the center of the room and looked at his own hand. He flexed it once, slowly.
"Hm," he said.
Lu Changcheng closed his mouth. He looked at Ren again, longer this time.
Ren met the look and said nothing.
"Again," Lu Changcheng said.