NOVEL NEXT Chapter 130: Second Place
Finally, the house arrest was over. Judging by Song Song's expression, though, she had something deadly in mind. While she usually listened to my advice, she often also did her own thing.
However, as her unofficial advisor, forced into this role by circumstances and by this crazy woman saving my life, I still had to advise her before she did anything rash.
However, the white-masked guy was still here, and we both knew that showing any weakness in front of anyone was a bad idea. As Song Song's advisor, my job was to make her look perfect; ideally, she would never make any mistakes as long as she followed my advice.
The white-masked guy's body shifted and disappeared from our senses in a torrent of dark shadows. As soon as he was gone, Song Song turned toward me, knowing that I had some advice to give her. Her look was a silent affirmation that we were likely alone and could speak freely.
"Whatever you're thinking of directing that bloodlust toward, I would advise against it for now," I said.
"Weren't you the same guy who said we should destroy it all?" Song Song narrowed her eyes at me. She didn't like people who backtracked on their ideals. She liked people who wore their hearts on their sleeves and didn't back down. At the same time, she wanted naive people to be competent.
But here, I would insist against that. I liked that part about Song Song, where she always did what she did what she wanted. But if we did whatever we wanted, we would end up as corpses within less than an hour.
"Not now. Perhaps when you get powerful enough to survive after something like that," I said.
While Song Song was the closest thing to a princess the Blazing Sun Sect had, that didn't mean they would put up with everything from her. Especially now that it seemed like she had lost a lot of her supporters. There was no Core Elder to defend her from the fallout.
That was quite a high estimation from Song Song. It seemed like she wasn't going to listen to me, but it wasn't as if she was doing this out of recklessness. My murderhobo friend had thought this through.
"What's with that look?" She frowned.
"Huh?" I looked at her quizzically.
"I feel like you're thinking something rude," she said.
It was times like these when Song Song's instincts showed just how scary they were. Either that or she was used to reading me after so many days we spent together.
"Anyway," Song Song changed the conversation. "Do you want to come with me to meet this dangerous and potentially murderous man feeling in the mood to, well… murder someone?"
That really dampened my mood about going with her.
"You really have a way with words that can convince anyone," I said sarcastically.
"You coming or not?" Song Song asked impatiently.
"Ah yes, I will stay here where I would be easy pickings for your crazy brother, your mad teacher, or any other Song Clan member feeling in a rather murderous mood," I added, with sarcasm dripping off each word I spoke.
"Are you really going to be this annoying every time I decide not to listen to your advice?" Song Song sighed, but there was a slight twitch on her lips that said more than she showed. We had our own brand of humor.
"Yeah, I'm coming with you," I said.
There was still some hope that I could stop Song Song from saying or doing something she shouldn't.
She took a sword from her storage ring, the same sword she had used when she flew me here while I was injured.
"Now is as good a time as any to begin learning how to use a flying sword," she said, pointing at the weapon and throwing it at me.
"Don't you know that throwing sharp objects at people is dangerous?" I said while calmly watching the sword coming toward me. This wasn't dangerous for a cultivator at my level; it was slow. I grabbed the sword mid-air and peeked at the yin-yang symbol on its handle.
She, on the other hand, closed her eyes, and the fabric where her shoulder blades should be bulged up. Something emerged from her back, tearing two holes in her robes. In their stead were two large crimson wings.
Okay, this was cool as hell!
I walked up close to her wings and smelled the odor of blood coming off them.
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"Wings made of blood? Are they usable?" I asked.
"Yep, I just have to use Qi on them to increase their power and try to make myself lighter," Song Song explained.
It wasn't a great explanation and left a lot in the dark. But this wasn't exactly the best time to ask, so I dropped the subject for now and tried to imbue Qi into the sword that Song Song had thrown at me.
The sword levitated a bit off the ground, and a weird connection formed between us.
"Using someone else's flying sword is rough, but I severed the connection it had with me," Song Song said. "So you should be able to figure it out. Carrying you there like a princess is quite embarrassing."
Song Song really had a way with words. Though not the way she would like, she was just good at annoying people. By the smile on her face, she also knew this.
I concentrated, and it felt like moving an invisible third arm that I could barely sense. Slowly, I had the flying sword levitate upward.
Then I jumped on the sword and tried to balance myself. It felt a bit weird for a couple of seconds, but after a bit, I got used to staying balanced. It was pretty nice. It was like riding a flying skateboard and had the kind of balance ordinary people could only dream of.
"Follow me," Song Song said before I could even test how well the sword worked. She blasted off in a red blur, and I created a spherical barrier around myself and blasted after her. We soared through the sky, the wind rushing past us.
However, there was still a part of me that was from my previous world, and I had to suppress an irrational fear of heights. But it was that same feeling that somehow made it fun, just flying on a sword with no care in the world.
As I followed along, I realized where she was going, and a heavy feeling settled over my heart.
"Hey!" I called out to Song Song, but it was no use; she couldn't hear me over the sound of us cutting through the wind.
We approached the stone mansion, which resembled a small castle. Only one person lived in this place.
She landed just in front of the gate of the castle-like building, and soon I followed after her. However, I realized a crucial detail as I got closer to the ground.
How the hell was I supposed to land? How was I supposed to slow this down?
Following my instinct, I let the sword stab into the ground while I jumped off it. The blade was sharp enough that it sunk hilt-deep into stone.
"You don't know how to land?" She looked at me like she was actually shocked. She approached the sword that had stabbed into the ground and pulled it out. "You have to start slowly putting less and less Qi into it as you land. To create less propulsion."
"It would have been great if someone told me," I said.
Song Song shrugged and nudged her head toward the gate. "Let's get in."
She walked in front of me, and that was when I noticed two holes in the back of her robe, showing her unblemished pale white skin.
"You should do something to patch those holes," I said.
"Huh?" She touched her naked back. "Whatever, I'm going to meet my father anyway. He isn't going to care about these kinds of things."
"If you say so," I reluctantly agreed and followed her.
When she was close to the door, she pointed her hand at the gates, and a soft blast of Qi caused them to swing wide open, almost blasting them off their hinges.
My heart jumped when I saw that. But by now, we should be under surveillance, and I wouldn't publicly undermine Song Song's decisions like this.
Despite the light coming from the door, the castle-like building still seemed covered in darkness. Song Song walked in confidently, and I followed. As soon as I stepped in, my vision was useless; everything turned dark and I had to rely on my Qi senses. I could feel a wisp of Qi, a withering presence before us. He seemed to be sitting on some kind of throne, but it was difficult to tell because while I could sense him, I couldn't see what he was doing.
"Song Song," a chillingly calm voice came through the darkness. I would have thought he was whispering in my ear if I hadn't sensed him. "Your friend caused quite some trouble for me."
Ah, fuck me.
"Yeah, he is pretty competent," Song Song said, sounding proud for some reason.
"I have to agree, quite the troublesome fellow…" he calmly stated. "Perhaps I should have someone deal with him."
"If you wanted someone dead, you would have sent someone," Song Song stated.
"Perhaps I wanted to see what kind of expression you would make when I tortured someone so close in front of you," he said.
A sense of terror spread through me. His cold voice made me feel like he saw things as if everything in the world was born to be his plaything.
"Can you stop with the threats? You're scaring him," Song Song grumbled. Though I couldn't see her, her tone of voice was like a daughter in front of her spoiling father.
Song Song's father said nothing at first, so she continued, "I will start building my faction from the beginning, and Liu Feng here is its first member."
"Are you sure about this?" he asked. "I'm sure that if I talked to your teacher and the rest of your supporters, the sheep would return to supporting you."
He was planning to threaten and force them to do this. No wonder Song Song thought that everything could be solved with violence when she had a father like this.
"No, I don't need their help," Song Song insisted. "After all, sheep like that won't stay by my side when I take over the Sect and destroy the Song Clan."
Wait, did she just imply that she was… Well, she wasn't implying anything; she just straight-up said it. Okay, I had to stay calm.
Should I even say something here? The guy knew I had made a deal with the Sect Leader to undermine his decision to get Song Song out of prison.
"Why?" her father asked. His tone didn't change at all despite hearing that his daughter wanted to destroy her family.
"Because I can," Song Song answered. Her tone wasn't calm like her father's. She was filled with passion and absolute rage. "I will gain strength and force my will on everyone. Nobody cares about the opinion of weaklings!"
"Right," her father said, and even though I couldn't see him, it felt like he had a smile on his face.
This was the most emotion he had shown so far and wasn't that a scary thought.
"When you're strong enough, you can do whatever you want. Even the Song Clan and its thousands of years of history would be at your mercy," her father stated, his voice returning to calm.
"Well, that's all I wanted to say. If I want to destroy the Song Clan, I will have to kill you. You were an okay father, but kind of annoying and always only caring about what you wanted," Song Song sighed.
After that, she turned around and began walking out. I followed a step behind her, and as we were about to leave, some chilling laughter built up. When we reached the door and walked outside, the laughter had developed into maniacal cackling.
Why was this whole family full of crazies? Even Song Sia, who I had thought was the calmest one, wanted to kill her cousin out of nowhere.
Why did I have to get involved with this family?