Chapter 102: Sit... Down for Me Right Now
"Speaking of which, why doesn't Dan Heng ever come to the Luofu?" Stelle mused, tapping her chin. "He just says he can't set foot here or something..."
Dan... Heng?
The name hung in the air, and for a moment, the blindfolded swordswoman, Jingliu, went utterly still. A memory, ancient and sharp, pierced through the fog of her mind.
Dan... Dan Feng...
A chilling, black aura began to seep from her form, coiling around her like phantom smoke.
Rekka's eyes narrowed. "Understandable, understandable," he said quickly, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "What if Dan Heng's just allergic to the place? Pollen, maybe? You never know."
He sensed something was terribly wrong, but it was already too late.
A flash of cold light—impossibly fast—split the air.
March 7th and Stelle didn't even have time to blink. In the next instant, a screech of protesting metal filled the alley as Rekka's entire body became encased in segmented, obsidian armor. The razor-sharp edge of an ice-forged sword ground to a halt just inches from his sternum, its killing intent so potent it frosted the air around them. He had caught the blade, but only just.
That strike had been blindingly swift; he was lucky he'd managed to shift into his combat form in time.
"Rekka, are you okay?!" March 7th cried out, her bow already half-drawn.
"I'm fine," Rekka grunted, his voice a low rumble from behind his new helmet. "I underestimated the enemy."
A trickle of shimmering golden blood oozed from the gash in his chest plate. His left hand, now a gauntlet of pitch-black armor, clamped down on the sword's blade, the friction sending a high-pitched squeal through the air. With his right, he reached out and seized Jingliu by the head, his armored fingers wrapping around her skull.
Stelle had only mentioned, in passing, that she didn't know why Dan Heng avoided the Luofu. That single, innocent comment had been enough to trigger Jingliu's Mara-Struck state.
"I didn't know mentioning Dan Heng would cause such a huge reaction..." Stelle mumbled, scratching her head in confusion.
"Hey!" March 7th whispered urgently, leaning closer. "Do you think Dan Heng and this blind lady are actually acquaintances, but for some unspeakable reason, he can't come to the Xianzhou...?"
"That's a perfectly normal observation," Stelle shot back. "Why do you make it sound like some scandalous, back-alley historical drama?"
As they bickered, the corrupting black aura from Jingliu crawled up Rekka's arm, attempting to invade his system. March 7th's eyes widened in alarm, but Rekka remained utterly unaffected. Today's Path was a perfect counter. He was a specialist in dealing with messy things like emotions; suppressing the Mara-Struck state was well within his capabilities.
"It's quite severe," Rekka noted nonchalantly. He released his grip on Jingliu's head, and the swordswoman swayed, the frenzied light in her aura dimming slightly. That single sword strike had managed to pierce straight through his defenses.
"What did you do?" Jingliu's voice was strained, the rage receding into a cold, sharp clarity.
"Nothing much. Just a little tuning method from the Path of Harmony," Rekka replied, shrugging his armored shoulders. "A technique called [Mind Cleansing]."
As he spoke, the gash on his chest began to seal itself, the golden blood retracting as the metal plates knitted back together.
"...You are a Pathstrider of the Harmony," Jingliu stated, a new kind of suspicion in her tone.
"Sort of."
An ordinary Pathstrider of the Harmony shouldn't be able to accomplish something like this. Just who was this man?
"That was a pretty ruthless strike," Rekka said, his gaze calm as he looked up at her. "But it's to be expected. When the Mara-Struck condition flares up, being able to control yourself enough not to land a killing blow is already a rare feat."
Jingliu didn't respond. Instead, she turned her head in Stelle's direction. "The person you mentioned just now... who is he?"
"You mean Dan Heng?" Stelle clutched her baseball bat warily, taken aback by the sudden question. "Do you two know each other?"
"I want to see him," Jingliu said, her mind seeming to settle further. "I wonder... if you could do me this favor?"
"Hey! You just tried to slice our friend in half!" March 7th exclaimed, stepping forward protectively. "How could we possibly agree to that!"
"If you want to see Dan Heng, you need a reason," Rekka added, his voice flat. "You can't just attack someone for mentioning a name and then immediately ask to see him. No matter how you look at it, that doesn't track."
"It was indeed my fault," Jingliu conceded, her tone devoid of emotion. "I don't deny that. But there are old matters from which he cannot hide."
Dururururururu, dururururururu—
Rekka's phone began to ring, the cheerful tune a stark contrast to the tense atmosphere. He fished out his terminal. "...Hello?"
It was Silver Wolf.
"You're saying Blade has arrived?" Rekka's voice dropped.
"Yeah," came her digitized reply. "Just ran into him."
Rekka's expression soured. "...Dan Heng didn't get off the train, did he?"
"Well... he probably heard that Blade appeared on the Xianzhou and was worried about your safety, so he quietly disembarked. But Blade appearing here was specifically to lure him out."
"What?! You didn't tell Dan Heng?"
"I fulfilled my duty to warn him," Silver Wolf said with a digital shrug in her voice. "However, your cold-faced little green dragon cares about you a lot, so... he should be trying to call you while rushing over right now."
As if on cue, a second call notification popped up on Rekka's terminal: Dan Heng.
You've been set up, Dan Heng.
Whoosh...
A figure materialized at the far end of the street. A man whose pectoral muscles were more developed than the entire character arc of some people appeared, his gaze sweeping over the scene.
"He got here fast," Rekka muttered. If it weren't for this remote, deserted path...
"...Ah." Blade's eyes, burning with a cold, dead light, scanned the group and locked onto his target.
"Calm down, calm down," Rekka said, holding out an armored palm towards the newcomer.
With a low hum of power, Blade was abruptly forced into a state of chilling clarity, the Mara-fueled rage in his eyes flickering and dying down. As things stood, he was in a rather awkward position. His true power was sealed, and Rekka just happened to be on a Path whose mechanics hard-countered him today.
"I know you're anxious, but don't be anxious just yet," Rekka said, now holding both hands out, one aimed at Jingliu, the other at Blade. "Being anxious won't help."
He began to chant, his mouth spewing a stream of utter nonsense. "Urgent as an edict, mami beibei hong..."
It didn't matter what he chanted, anyway. He was just picking whatever sounded catchy.
When Dan Heng finally arrived, breathless, he was greeted by the bizarre sight of Rekka in a fierce one-on-two standoff, holding both Jingliu and Blade in place with invisible power while muttering gibberish. He was momentarily at a loss for words.
"Rekka?"
"Yeah," Rekka nodded, not breaking his concentration. He continued his chant. "Hajimi oh south north green bean, ashigada ah hayaku, omajili dingdong chicken, dingdong dingdong hajimi..."
"What is he chanting?" Dan Heng asked, completely bewildered. The synesthesia beacon wasn't translating it, because it wasn't a language. It was just... sounds.
Are those even human words?
"He said they're scriptures for clearing the mind," March 7th supplied, scratching her head. Since the beacon couldn't translate it, it was just beyond understanding noise to her, too.
Dan Heng stood frozen, his gaze shifting from the immobilized Jingliu, to Blade who was suppressed and forced to sit on the ground, and finally to Rekka's intensely serious face.
Jingliu was held motionless by that invisible force. The frenzy of her Mara-Struck state seemed to be temporarily frozen, leaving her mind unnervingly clear. But as clear as it was, the bizarre syllables popping out of Rekka's mouth made her doubt for a moment if her Mara was still active and she had started having auditory hallucinations.
"Dan Feng—!" Blade spat the name through gritted teeth. His body strained violently, muscles bulging as he fought to break through the invisible force field Rekka had imposed on him.
Rekka's eyes widened, and beads of sweat began to form on his forehead. "You... just... sit, sit, sit, sit... sit down for me!"
"It's time to pay the price! The time has come, Imbibitor Lunae!" Blade's voice was a raw, hoarse snarl, thick with an ancient and bottomless hatred. "Do you think that by taking on another appearance, by changing to another identity, the sins of the past can be wiped clean?!"
The pressure was immense. Rekka was suppressing two powerful Mara-Struck individuals at once. Although he was on the Path of Harmony today, he wasn't at the level of an Aeon's Emanator; he was just an ordinary, albeit very talented, Pathstrider.
"How about we take them away first?" March 7th suggested nervously. "You can't keep holding them like this forever, right?"
"This is way too dangerous..." Stelle added, gripping her bat tighter.
"Hurry up and haul them to the Seat of Divine Foresight for Jing Yuan—!" Rekka shouted, his voice strained. He immediately resumed his nonsensical chanting to maintain his hold over the two.
Dan Heng's eyes darted around and spotted a large handcart tucked away in a corner.
"Imbibitor Lunae, what do you think you're doing, you—" Blade's protest was cut short as Dan Heng unceremoniously lifted him and dumped him into the bed of the cart.
Following his lead, Stelle and March 7th located another handcart and, with a coordinated "heave-ho," hoisted the unresisting Jingliu onto it.
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