Chapter 129 – Echoes (V)

Chapter 129

Echoes (V)

“Here we are,” Old Zemin announced just as we stepped past a strangely shaped rock that curved into an arch, as though embodying a strange, natural gate.

The world suddenly shifted, colors and shapes distorting for a brief moment before it all came back into full view. Dozens of tents sprang up around a massive clearing, with smokes of flames arising every few feet, and the hubbub of hundreds of souls coming alive.

They were all carefully arranged around the central area, where a set of seemingly random stones jutted out of the ground, though vaguely in the shape of a building. Over it was a thin sheen of red, pulsing like a heartbeat, each pulse radiating out a faint hum of sound and energy and revealing strange runes–though changing which ones with every pulse.

Three things became apparent quickly: one, we were not welcome here. Two, seriously, we were not welcome here.

And three–I’m pretty sure someone just tried to kill me, and had Old Zemin not stepped in to block it, I might be lying on the ground, dead, right about now.

“Old Zemin bastard, why are you bringing strangers here? Do you want us to kill you?!” Someone barked at him.

“Yahu’er, show the guests to an empty tent.” He turned to the young woman and spoke with a faint smile, though as soon as he turned his head elsewhere, the faint smile was gone, and in its stead was chill.

“You just tried to murder a personal guest of mine,” he said. “An affront that even the Gods do not tolerate. Step out, Xiang, and face me in a duel to death.”

His words not only sent a shockwave through me but also everyone here. Gasps rang out and eyes widened in shock, and even the man being challenged staggered backward, likely not having expected it. The latter seemed to be in his sixties, broadly built like an ox, with shoulders the width of a freakin’ car. No, seriously, he’d be benching trucks and not pounds back on Earth.

“Are you insane, old man? Do you intend to start a war between our sects because of some wayside vermin?”

“War between sects? You certainly do count yourself quite important. I will personally visit your Master to offer an explanation, along with your head, so you should not worry about sects and waging wars. Merely make your peace and clean your neck, you indelicate idiot.”

Hey.

Despite being ushered to some tent, we all stopped, interested in the affairs; the young woman didn’t seem worried and was more excited than anything else, truth be told, as was I. I’d seen battles between experts a couple of times, but this would be an old-fashioned duel!

I doubt I’ll be able to follow it with my eyes, but…

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Then again, to be fully honest, I don’t think they’ll fight. Right now the atmosphere is about eighteen billion degrees below zero, but any second now someone will step out with the cliche ‘Hey now, you two, let’s not fight; Xiang, apologize, bla bla bla’, you know how it goes.

So, all I gotta do is wait.

… wait for the duel to start because, what the hell, the old man Zemin just attacked straight out of nowhere?!!