Chapter 8 - Azure-Scaled Dragon (VII)

Just as she was once again about depart into a dreamless sleep, a strange sensation prodded at her sixth sense.

She gasped, her eyes flying wide open. The danger startled her awake. But when she turned her head, she found nothing but the sitting corpse.

But it was such a vivid feeling that she could not shrug it off as the whimsy of her imagination.

She stared with bated breath, until eventually...

The corpse pulsed with qi.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

She heard a voice that wasn't truly there. She questioned if she had even heard it.

"The way you look upon those pages... you must recognize the wonders they contain. You're a rare breed."

When it kept speaking, fear drove her back against the wall.

"Who's there?" She demanded.

"My name... would ring quite hollow now. Everything worth knowing about me, I carved into these walls."

The corpse remained unmoving. The Golden Witch slowly regained her calm.

"Of course, you'll find nothing about me there. Outside, the world crawls with the kind of cockroach that would squander this precious space to leave behind some part of their insignificant selves. But me, I'm not like them. I can tell that you're struggling to wrap your head around my personal notes. But they weren't put there for you to understand! I don't care about a legacy! I've never wanted a successor! I put that there for me! I needed to find the answer, me! No matter what! I know there is an end to it all, the perfection, the true and final mastery of the sword! I must find it!"

The noise grew in volume, assailing her senses; not her ears, but that which allowed her to perceive qi. That dim trace of energy rose like a flame, but could not sustain itself and waned.

"...When I realized that my time was running out, I sealed myself away here and committed myself to the task. I scraped my knowledge on these walls so that I wouldn't forget no matter how muddled my mind grew with age. I was content with dedicating my every waking moment to finding the truth. But it was all in vain! I didn't make it in time. My body failed me! And without a body, how can one wield a sword? How can this riddle be solved without a weapon in hand? But I just can't bear to let it go. Now these scribbles exist only to taunt me."

"How..." The Golden Witch finally forced herself to speak. "How are you talking?"

"There is nothing within this carcass but a trace of my essence. I had heard, once, that when a man goes blind, his other senses grow sharper. It must be true. Once I had lost everything else, it sharpened a sense I didn't even know I possessed. Did you know that it can be honed even further? I have done nothing else during all this time. But it was useless to me until now."

She remained in silent disbelief.

"Gradually, I regained my cognizance of the world. For example, I can feel you groveling over there. Stand up, girl. Let me have a proper look at you."

Still unsteady, she forced herself up.

"Marvelous. Truly marvelous. Just that build of yours is enough to turn any martial artist green with envy. But it is that which the worldly senses cannot perceive, that strange constitution that circulates qi with such natural ease... If any martial artist could only see what I see now, why, they'd lose all hope. That body, so attuned to heaven and earth, it's as though it had been chiseled out of jade with the sole purpose to channel those energies. Ah, I wish I could take your place now. Even becoming a woman would be a small price to pay. No, why even make note of something so trivial? You are not even truly human, are you? And still, I would gladly throw my humanity aside without hesitation."

Unable to stand any longer, the Golden Witch slid down along the wall.

The ghost continued, "Well, perhaps you can at least finish my work. I will watch. Seeing someone else discover the answer could not possibly come close to the satisfaction I would have gotten from doing it myself, but... it will have to do."

"It's not possible..." She sighed.

"Nonsense." The disembodied voice disparaged. "If the likes of you can't do it, then who else possibly could? You're ready to give up after that little bit of flailing you did? What are you, a child? Don't be impatient! Of course, these things take time."

"It's not that. Maybe I could do it... No, I desperately want to do it... but there's just no time. You can feel it too, can't you? This wound is bad. I don't know if it will ever heal. And my cultivation can't sustain me like it always does. I doubt I have more than a few days before I starve to death in here. And if I step one foot outside... he'll kill me. I can't master the sword to his level in just a few days. I'm sorry. I'd love to help you, but it's simply impossible..."

"Then what will you do?" He asked.

The Golden Witch closed her eyes. An anxious sleep took hold of her. A fever kept her shivering through the entirety of her listless rest. Strange visions assailed her dreams. Recollections mixed with nightmares until one such twisted memory put a thought in her mind that she couldn't shake.

Twisting and turning, her eyes suddenly snapped open. They glittered with madness.

She stared at the corpse, cold sweat streaming down her face.

"Can you do it?" She suddenly asked.

The dim flame of his soul flickered like a candle in the wind.

The Golden Witch shifted in place, put herself on her hands and knees. She crawled towards the swordsman's remains.

"If you really had my body, would you be able to reach the answer?"

Her hands reached his tattered robes. She lifted herself up, laid her palms upon his skull, stared deep into his hollow sockets.

"What if I really gave myself to you?" She breathed desperately onto the unmoving corpse. "There's a technique I know... It can absorb the yin energy of others. And right now, you are nothing more than that. The way I am now, if I were to absorb something like you, something still sentient, I'm sure you could just exert your will and take over. And then... And then...!"

Her lips curled into a smile as she unveiled her plan.

"Have you lost your mind?" Finally came the reply. "Even if it were possible, it would be no different from dying."

"I don't care!" She erupted with a desperate plea. "I want to see it. I want to experience it! A marvelous sword that could bring down even him...? Right now, I can't even fathom such a thing. So if I could experience that with my own body? Why, that would be just sublime! I'd do anything for that! And I don't care what happens to me next! Please... Please, at least let me try. I know you're scared. But you can tell the state I'm in. I wouldn't even manage to resist. There's next to no risk for you. Just let me try!"

"...You thought I was worried about myself?"

The ghost laughed. It cackled for a long, long time.

"The heavens must have sent you here. To reward my dedication!" The spirit declared. "Do it!"

The Golden Witch used Deng Hong's greatest technique. Her two fingers struck where the qi was at its densest. The foreign energy flowed into her shattered meridians.

The Golden Witch sat crosslegged and channeled it through her dantian, spreading the man's soul across her entire being.

Her body convulsed.

A cackle reverberated throughout the cavern once more. This time, its sound was real. It shook the walls. The woman sprung to her feet with a triumphant scream.

"So this is who you are! It really is like you were born from the earth!"

Overcome with joy, she spread her long arms wide.

"Rest easy, child! You can leave it all in the hands of this old man! In exchange for your generosity, I swear, I will not let your father's ambition go unfulfilled!"

...