By this point, he had begun to feel a different, more stomach-churning kind of discomfort than the hunger pangs. It was a struggle just to stay on his feet, and he was certainly in no condition to hatch an escape. Patches of discoloration had even formed on his skin, so he had been forced to hole up in a cave near the lake to avoid suspicion and hide from his pursuers.
Oh, blast! I’ve finally begun to recover, but the pain is still unbearable. I feel rotten. Why on earth were some unremarkable brigands so corrupted? How much do the Heavens insist on making me suffer?
Clutching at his chest, Tou shook his head in self-pity. He would have been better off sticking to his usual strategy of luring the locals into the mountains a few at a time and draining their life force. At the very least, siphoning Leanne’s energy before escaping into the cave might have diluted the corruption, but the string of adults who popped up around her had stayed his hand. He generally had to be in physical contact with a target to drain their life force, and even with his magic, he doubted he could fight off such a large crowd.
That blunder certainly cost me. I’ve been too sick to do anything but sleep for nearly two whole days.
No, after that accursed pigeon interrupted his sleep the previous night, even getting proper rest had been a struggle.
With a click of his tongue, Tou once again gazed at the entrance to the cave. Even with his impaired vision, he could faintly perceive the sunlight streaming in through the round opening that had formed naturally in the rock. Two whole days had passed since he’d taken refuge. That meant the Day of Ultimate Yin was finally upon him, and the solar eclipse was set to begin at noon. Judging by the position of the sun, there was only about an hour remaining until then.
It’s too late to flee now. My only option left is to take the plunge and steal someone else’s body today.
After loosing a long exhale, Tou groped along the damp walls of the cave. Troops armed with cannons could very well be coming for him, but he didn’t have a prayer of escaping in his current vessel. He had waited twenty-five years for this chance to swap bodies, so he had to take a gamble on it no matter how the odds were stacked against him.
I must find my way back to a populated area.
Now that over two days had passed since he’d drained the brigands’ life force, the observable symptoms of the corruption were under control. No one would be able to tell something was amiss by looking at him.
Once Tou had limped to the cave entrance, he stopped to catch his breath again. From this point onward, he would have to take care to pass himself off as an able-bodied man.
Well then, where to next?
It wasn’t a long way from the cave to the settlement as the crow flies, and he could easily make it back within half an hour if he crossed the frozen lake. However, he preferred not to cast his body-swapping spell in a crowded area.
The ideal would be to find someone out hunting or fishing by themselves.
Tou engaged his dantian—his body’s energy center, if you will—and opened the spiritual eyes he used to perceive qi. This allowed him to sense the flow of qi in everything within arm’s reach, lending him an approximation of vision. If he channeled even more qi into the technique, he could detect anything within a half li of where he stood.
Curses! My qi is so corrupted that it’s disrupting my spells.
As he was still feeling under the weather, Tou couldn’t “see” things as clearly as usual. Nevertheless, he focused harder and scanned the mountain for any dots of qi scattered throughout. His perspective soared upward like a bird’s. It was as though heaven and earth had turned upside down, and he was looking down upon a sea of stars made of life energy.
What?!
Though he’d initially intended to check if someone had ventured close to the cave, his attention snapped to a strange movement. A nebulous swarm of qi was making its way toward him.
Am I under siege?! He gulped, but the lack of coordination to their march suggested that they weren’t soldiers.
The group hiked up the mountain path, arriving at the shore of the lake near the summit—the same lake Tou’s cave faced. They unhurriedly fanned out across the shore before coming to a halt.
What in the world are they doing?
Were they adults or children? Men or women? He would need to get a little closer to make out the specifics of their qi.
But then, after focusing his own qi hard enough to bring sweat beading on his forehead, Tou gasped. Oh! The owner of that red braid is part of the crowd!
Among the cluster of hazy lights, a red, ring-shaped qi stood out in sharp relief. It was without a doubt the bracelet dyed with his own blood, the one Tou had ordered that grimy little girl from the settlement to weave and tie around the Maiden’s wrist.
Good. Excellent. Ha ha! How fortuitous that the Maiden would wander right into the lion’s den. His heart raced with excitement over this stroke of luck.
He only sensed one braid, which meant that either Kou Keikou hadn’t come along or he had never put on the bracelet. A shame, but Tou knew it was a blessing just to get his hands on the body of such a young, healthy woman. This also explained why the group had come to the lake. They had probably brought the visiting Maiden to see the sights. Or perhaps they were planning to get in another round of ice fishing.
It was inconvenient to have so many other people around, but Tou had a tool to overcome that disadvantage now: the red bracelet. More specifically, the blood he had worked into it.
By using my own blood as a medium, I can switch our bodies without ever even touching her. All I need to do is get within a few hundred strides of the target, and I should be able to pull it off from a distance!
He could hardly believe how well this had worked out for him. In fact, it was so convenient that Tou suddenly grew nervous. He couldn’t get the deafening boom of three nights ago out of his head. What if this was all a trap? What if the Maiden’s entourage fired arrows at him the instant he went after her? From his current position, it was impossible to tell whether the crowd on the lakeshore was simply lounging around or armed and ready for a fight.
Was he overthinking it? Perhaps, but it was that abundance of caution that had kept him alive for so long.
Would I be better off escaping to the foot of the mountain?
Tou’s first instinct was to seek an escape route, and he turned his spiritual eyes toward the mountain base. He didn’t sense a horde of soldiers marching in—but he did discover a different kind of surprise.
“Ah!”
An intense aura was marching up the mountain path at a furious pace. Tou jerked his head up in alarm.
The dragon’s qi?!
So overwhelming was the presence, it was as if the very sun had been pinned to the earth, emanating an abundance of light. It stood to reason that such a powerful radiance could only belong to a few chosen members of the imperial family.
That isn’t Ei Genyou’s strong water qi. Does that mean it isn’t the emperor…but the crown prince hailed as a throwback to the Great Ancestor?
Despite how long Tou had been away from the imperial capital, even he had heard rumors of the crown prince and the dragon’s qi he bore. He had assumed it was all exaggerated, but he couldn’t have been more wrong.
What was the prince doing all the way out here? Could he have come to vanquish Tou on his father’s orders?
No! The base is no good! Tou pounded a fist against the cave wall, his agitation plain to see.
Daoist magic was little more than an imitation of the dragon’s qi. The true dragon’s qi—the glory of the Great Ancestor—could overwhelm sorcerers with its presence alone. Much like a chasm or a roaring waterfall, it instilled a fear of getting swallowed up, and just having it in the vicinity was enough to make Tou break into a clammy sweat.
I’ve no idea how the crown prince feels about magic, but I don’t want to imagine what will happen if he finds me and takes me into custody! Will I be all right if I stray from the main road and go down another way?
Tou agonized and mussed up his hair, unsure what his best option was. Only one road led from the base of the mountain all the way to the settlement. As long as he didn’t take that path, he might be able to escape detection. Still, he couldn’t see or walk without the help of qi, and those qi reserves would dry up without warning; he didn’t stand a chance of making it down an uncharted path while also taking care to stay out of sight.
If I ran, I wouldn’t make it far in this vessel. Whatever I decide to do, I must swap bodies first!
With his back to the wall, Tou became more and more convinced that he couldn’t remain in his current body. He had to find a new vessel—and fast.
I will leave this cave and cut across the lake. As soon as the eclipse is upon us, I’ll switch bodies with the Maiden who came to admire the lake.
Once he had thrust the Maiden’s soul into his current vessel, he could drain her life force under the guise of tending to an old man. It would look like “Tou” had abruptly keeled over and died of unexplained causes, and the new “Shu Keigetsu” could flee the mountain in a pretense of fear. The crown prince would have to settle for bringing home the corpse of “Tou”—or Prince Gomei, as it were.
“Urk…”
Using his sight technique over such a wide range made him dizzy. He cut the spell short and slumped against the stone wall.
At that exact moment, someone piped up, “There you are, Doctor Tou!”
The voice hadn’t come from one of the places Tou had focused on, like the lakeshore or the foot of the mountain. A man had called out from right beside him, and Tou’s real eyes flew open in shock.