Chapter Twenty-Two: The Shadow of the Blue Orchid

The sewage treatment plant, on a lawn at the other end.

A tall man wearing a mask bent down to pick up a freesia.

A short, jet-black arrow shot out, but before it could hit its mark, he caught it in his hand.

He sneered, tossing the arrow back with a flick of his wrist. The weapon flew faster than the hunter had anticipated, its tip grazing her arm and leaving a line of blood.

“So this is your manifestation? Ha...”

The hunter didn’t become angry at his provocation. Only someone as hot-tempered as Gongsun Ce would fall for such a simple taunt.

In truth, she had disliked him from the moment they began speaking, purely because of his manner. Outwardly, she’d met his jibes with sharp retorts, but she’d been prepared from the start, hoping he would make the first move so she could gauge the true nature of his abilities.

If he launched a wide-range attack, she’d retreat with the psychic; in any other scenario, she’d teleport her opponent far away.

She had only met her new ally this afternoon. Facing a duo from the Ritual Hall, even with the upper hand in abilities, their coordination would hardly match that of seasoned partners. If it turned into a two-on-two melee, they’d likely fall behind.

So, let the expert deal with the expert. She had to leave the tall man’s partner to the young psychic. She was confident he wouldn’t go down easily.

But what she hadn’t anticipated was that the problem would arise on her side.

“You always speak with such arrogance. Is that an imperial habit?” she said, stepping forward to maintain the proper distance, eyes wary for any sudden attack.

Relying on her own power, she had yet to suffer any real injury since the battle began.

But neither had her opponent.

“How I speak is none of your damn business.”

There it was again.

She couldn’t sense his gaze behind the mask. He just played with the freesia in his hand, as if she wasn’t worth his attention.

That, in itself, was strange. He’d picked up the shadow freesia more than ten seconds ago. From her experience, a flower like that would have faded and vanished in a non-shadowed environment.

Yet now, the bloom remained in his palm, unaffected by the change in surroundings.

“How tedious. This is the shape of your heart, is it? Such a self-important woman.”

She took back her earlier thought—clearly, taunts did work.

“Self-important? You think you’re one to speak?”

“The vessel for your wish is a flower. The required environment is shadow. And the wish itself is transfer—escape, if you will.” He closed his hand, crushing the flower. “A simple wish, a clear symbol, so easy to interpret. Boring. You see yourself as an elegant bloom, but unfortunately, you only flower in the shadows of light, so your wish is to flee the shade and seek a new world—”

He watched as the light from the crushed flower drifted from his palm and laughed heartily.

“Ha! But dragon-slaying arts aren’t wish fulfillment. They’re just techniques that harness willpower. What you want and what you get are rarely the same. Even if you follow your predecessors’ advice step by step, you’ll walk a completely different path in the end. That’s why it’s called the doctrine of impermanence. Just like your manifestation—you escaped the shadow, but your destination is yet another shadow!”

“You—!”

“You must feel uneasy using your power, hmm? Out of kindness, let me give you some advice. Start by changing your attitude toward others.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Self-importance has its limits. No beautiful flower grows in the dark. To others, you and those you look down on are just hyenas skulking in the shadows. There’s no difference. You might as well call yourself the shadow hound or the dark slug. Who knows, your power might become much greater! Hahahaha!”

Now, the hunter finally understood Gongsun Ce’s reaction.

When something dear to your heart is trampled, or when the side of yourself you wish to hide is exposed without mercy, even the gentlest soul would ignite with anger.

She almost found it hard to believe—was this what the psychic Fang Qian had felt? For Gongsun Ce to hold a conversation with this man at all, his self-restraint had been extraordinary.

“And what about you? How would you rate your own level? Are you a manifestation, or do you have the same power as me?”

She flicked another short arrow, sending it into the shadow of a flower, which reemerged behind the tall man.

He didn’t even turn his head, simply sidestepped the attack.

“None of your damn business.”

That was the final straw; it utterly enraged the hunter.

The masked man took another step to the side.

As before, it was to dodge an attack. The arrow that should have dropped behind him suddenly shot from a different angle.

“Oh?”

Alice hurled two more arrows.

Instantly, arrows shot out from behind, beside, and in front of the man! Dodging once wasn’t enough; every arrow vanished before hitting the ground, only to reappear from an entirely new direction.

Three arrows, disappearing and reappearing, danced in the air with unpredictable trajectories. The man managed to dodge them all, but before he could adjust, the blue-haired woman added two more arrows to her encirclement.

“My manifestation calls forth flowers from the shadows. Shadow means any place the light does not reach—darkness without light. It could be a pocket, the shadow under a board, or land deprived of sunlight. In other words...”

“After sunset, every unlit area beneath the night sky is my domain.”

Alice threw a sixth black arrow.

“Shadow Freesia, Azure Sea.”

A freesia bloomed at her feet.

At the same time, flowers appeared in the roadside grass, sprouted from the gray stone walkway, and blossomed from the cement walls of buildings. Everywhere the eye could see, the blue glow of flowers spread. In a blink, the entire area where they stood had become a sea of freesia!

This was her method of surrounding the tall man with just a few arrows—by creating flowers everywhere, she could make her arrows vanish and reappear from any direction.

Now, the man looked even more disheveled than when he’d been knocked to the ground. His coat was slashed all over, his shirt torn open at the chest and belly. His evasive maneuvers were more frantic than a circus clown's.

“I offer you advice out of goodwill, and you don’t even thank me? Instead, you get this angry!”

“Why, indeed? Perhaps you should reflect on your own way of speaking.” The hunter vanished from her spot, reappearing behind him in an instant. “This dull and tedious power does have uses you might not expect. I hadn’t planned to use it on you—”

The masked man turned just in time to meet her gaze.

“Hey, wait! You can’t be serious?”

If emotion could take shape, the anger in the blue-haired woman’s eyes would have burst into flame.

“It's just losing a body part. For a Ritual Hall expert, that’s hardly a big deal!”

The expert instantly understood her intent.

Teleporting living beings was delicate work, requiring total concentration to be flawless. One slip during the process...

This time, he didn’t gasp—he laughed out loud.

“Ha! Are you truly going to go that far?”

“Who was it that said we should just die? You just advised me to change my outlook, didn’t you? I accept your advice. Let me show you how a hyena fights!”

The tall man ignored the arrows about to pierce him and the hunter’s reaching hand.

He stood his ground, raising a single finger.

“Not bad, woman. Now things are getting interesting!”

Alice’s hand and arrow were about to strike him, and the masked man seemed ready to activate his ability, when—

Dozens of filthy jets of high-pressure water suddenly shot in from afar!

The streams sliced across the lawn like blades, shearing the fresh green grass, cleaving any buildings in their path with liquid knives. The swirling currents divided the area into uneven fragments, the slightest brush meaning certain death. The hidden assailant had decided to end this by ambushing both at once as they fought!

“Tch.”

The hunter’s click of annoyance echoed from a distance.

The water blades struck only empty air—the blue-haired woman stepped out from a distant flower, clutching someone by the shoulder.

At the last moment, she’d abandoned her planned attack, choosing instead to teleport herself and the irritating expert to safety.

The masked man now stared at their attacker.

A dozen monstrous beasts closed in, each with a lion’s head, a serpent’s tail, and the body of a goat, moving with an unbearable stench.

Their bodies were as transparent as water, with a mass of roiling filth at their core, as if that were their heart.

The masked man said nothing, but Alice couldn’t help herself: “Well, expert, any opinions?”

“Utterly boring. Even duller than your flowers. Malignant arts are not merely disgusting—if you end up with this, it just proves you’re an idiot.” He waved dismissively, as if shooing flies. “All this time waiting, and this is what we get? What trash!”

The beasts roared and lunged.

The tall man snapped his fingers.

In an instant, the water-chimeras froze in place.

“Truce. Do whatever you want, I’m not wasting my time here.”

He tossed an object toward Alice, who caught it.

“Here are your arrows.”

With that, he turned his back on the hunter and strode away, ignoring the immobilized beasts as if they didn’t exist.

Alice Aidar looked at what he’d thrown.

Six short black arrows, neatly arrayed.

What was this man really after?

Even she was at a rare loss. She was about to chase after the strange man for answers when her thoughts turned to the psychic she’d parted from not long ago.

“Damn, could something have happened to Gongsun Ce as well?”

She vanished, heading toward their previous separation point.

Now, only the dozen or so monsters remained, standing where they were.

They howled and barked, unable to move, like a pack of abandoned dogs.