1049 Chapter 1049 Lian into it
I decided to go with a Lian chapter first.
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“Lily I swear to the heavens, if you die on me I’ll find some way to curse you back to life!” hissed Lian as she grabbed the sides of the paper plane she was now riding. Lian shifted her position to alter the planes angle of attack and hopefully stop them from just crashing into the nearby mountains.
In Lian’s mind, this was a minor thing. She leaned back and stabilised the plane before leaning to the right and taking them away from the cliffs she knew surrounded Bing’s home. Not too far though, she wanted to ride the updraft that the mountains provided, even so high up and so cold. To Lian, this was a somewhat challenging thing, but of minor not overall.
She was forgetting that she’d grown up as part of a sect of Wind cultivators. Even if she didn’t cultivate wind qi at all, she’d picked up more than a few tricks just from living with them so long. She had an intuitive understanding of air currents that could only come from spending hours upon hours of class time learning about them and all their intricacies. For Lian, she knew it would never be as important to her as the others, but she hoped it would be useful when she eventually learned to fly. She learnt later on in her life that it wasn’t, not really, but the information was proving its worth right now.
Lian glanced down at the still figure of Lily. *Dammit. You better still be breathing you little rat. Getting me out alive might be nice but your demon girlfriend will FUCKING MURDER ME if you aren’t recovered by the time she finds us. Honestly, I’d rather face the sects justice. At least I know they’ll kill me quickly. Can’t risk damaging their precious image of righteousness so it would be over quickly.
Well… that’s a little unfair. The sect does good work, and provides a number of services for the needy mortals. Wait… is that a rude way of putting it? I don’t know who I’m arguing with… I just mean that the mortals who are need. The sects soup kitchens are surprisingly relaxing to work at for example, because we come down HARD on troublemakers interrupting that sort of thing.
So it’s not like the sect does NO good work… but I grew up with Lian. I know about the black division, and the inquisitors. I know we’re not all sunshine and roses… hmm… I suppose I could end up with them… but as Bing’s friend it’s a bit too necessary to make my execution public, and they’d need me to look somewhat ok for that… though… if they cut off a hand or foot ‘during a fight’ perhaps. Ugh, still better then letting Kat get her hands on me if Lily isn’t ok.
I mean what was Kat thinking really? Lily did wonderfully in getting us out, but I can’t believe Kat let her help. It clearly wasn’t Lily’s idea, and based on the fact she’s out cold… or… well no she’s out cold, I can’t be upset about that fact on Lily’s behalf. Clearly she wanted to help… and it probably means a lot that Kat was willing to trust her with my safety, by herself. I get the feeling Lily doesn’t get a lot of chances to do that.*
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Lian sneezed, and sadly, the paper plane went with the jerking motion. Lian had to struggle a bit to keep from flipping the plane over. One of her hands had to snake over and grab Lily before she could roll out of the plane. Which of course, caused more issues with the stability of the plane. Lian was stuck fighting the wind, and her exhaustion for what felt like an age but was in reality only five minutes at most.
Lian was breathing heavily when she finally got the plane floating calmly once again. They were still going to crash at some point, but it would be far in the future, and hopefully away from anyone who wanted to chase them for the time being. With Meng and Bang being fake, Lian was hoping they didn’t know the mountain as well as she did. It was a bit of a fragile hope, but one that she was banking on.
*If I’m really luck I should be able to find one of the cave systems Bing and I found playing on the mountain. I have vague memories of a few of them… hopefully I’ll spot a landmark or something. Urgh… hopefully this isn’t too much effort. I’m still basically out of qi, and the fact that I was hyped up because of the fight isn’t helping matters. I’ve got just barely enough energy to keep myself from collapsing but no more than that. I can’t do anything too strenuous, not even fight this plane more than… once? Maybe twice more? Ugh… Lily why did you think this was a good idea?
Actually, how did you know this was going to work? And how DID it work?* Lian looked down at the paper plane for the first time and really started to think about the physics behind it. She wasn’t from a modern society, but she was from a sect that study the wind religiously and now that she was looking the paper plane over, it was large yes, and might be able to work as a glider in ideal circumstances…
But it was almost certainly performing above expectations. It reacted to her movements a bit too well and Lian was now certain that it was gliding smoother through the air then should be possible, especially while keeping so much altitude. *Damn mage bullshit. I bet that has to be it.*
Lian was of course, being a bit of a hypocrite considering just how many things she could do with curse qi. This notion would be reinforced by the fact that Lian wasn’t taking into account just how rich in qi the mountain was. The sect settled here for a reason after all. The ice and wind qi mixed in strange ways, making both more potent. Perhaps if this was a normal mountain, and the wind wasn’t so rich in qi the flight would’ve been over sooner… but as it was? Lily had just conjured oversized paper that was barely thick enough to maintain flight. The real magic was that the snow wasn’t melting and causing issues when it hit the paper.
*I was useless in that fight. Not that I really planned on fighting. I was already exhausted when I cursed the array. Honestly, I expected it to cost a bit more blood. Though perhaps I should be glad it was blood, and not bone marrow, or just the ability to produce blood that I sacrificed. Besides Lily did…* Lian winced, and then pressed her hand to where she was 90% sure Lily’s lungs should be, and smiled when she felt movement. *…did well enough. She’s alive. I’m alive. Nobody got hurt… much.*
*Her performance was… not ideal. Not that it was worse than mine… and really I shouldn’t criticise her considering it turned out fine and I don’t think she’s that much of a combatant… but dammit she made so many mistakes. Why didn’t she throw some of those razor sharp papers while we were running? Why stick to large but thin paper she knew that maid could cut through easily.
Why did she not bring down the roof to block off the path? She busted out of the roof to escape, so clearly she wasn’t avoiding something like that. Why not bring down a large section on top of our pursuer? Lily could’ve used her claws to slice through a few supports as she ran. That would’ve gotten the maid right? Why didn’t she try to disarm the maid either? With her claws, a strike to the hand would easily disarm a lesser opponent, of which that maid was almost certainly one.*
Lian sighed and glanced at the mountain, spotting one of the boulders she’d used as a landmark in the past. Probably. Lian was pretty sure it was one she’d seen before. Lian looked down at the paper plane. It was sturdy considering the material used in its construction but Lian was under no delusions that it would survive the landing. Perhaps, if Lian had enough qi and was careful it could be prevented but even just getting through the trees intact would be a hassle, and she didn’t have enough qi for the job anyway.
*Gotta risk it I think. I’m starting to feel the chill, and I don’t know how well Lily can handle it normally, let alone unconscious and exhausted like she is.* Lian angled the plane down, aiming to hit the ground near the boulder. The wings clipped the trees, as she’d expected they would, but Lian held strong. The plane shook and shuddered, but she managed to pull it up just before hitting the boulder, halting most of their momentum, before crashing hard into the snowy ground.
“Welp… I’m alive, and cold, but we’re near shelter… probably and the plane is wrecked so… guess we just have to hope,” mumbled Lian.
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