Sweet Nothings (3)

Spoiler Warning!!!

Read only after finishing the first Arc of 'Unwilling Death, Reclaiming Dignity'!

'I'm not feeling too good, so I'm not sure that I can compete in the competition. But you can take Suan Bi in my stead, he will probably do better than me anyway...'

Jing Jiang still remembered when he said these exact words to his father two days ago.

And his father's response?

Just a simple 'Are you sure?', while looking straight into Jing Jiang's eyes.

The implications of this three-word question were clear and they weighed heavily on Jing Jiang, but in the end, he only averted his eyes and nodded with his head slightly bowed.

'Alright.'

His father's voice sounded neither angry nor disappointed, but that just made Jing Jiang feel worse, and no matter how often he tried to reassure himself that it was just a town competition nothing too life-changing over the last few days, he couldn't help feeling a tinge of regret in his heart.

Even after telling Suan Bi the news and seeing how ecstatic he was to receive this opportunity, this regret didn't completely go away.

But he kept it to himself, ignoring it to the best of his ability until now when he saw his father and Suan Bi standing on top of the wooden stage together and the regret he felt turned into envy, pricking his heart like a thin needle.

Unfortunately, there was nothing more he could do, so any regret and envy he might feel were entirely redundant and more useless than anything else. In the end, he had no other choice but to swallow his emotions and watch the city lord announce the start of the competition just as everybody else in the audience did.

And this year, the competitors seemed especially fierce, Assistants pushing and elbowing each other out of the way just to get the materials a little faster and maybe 'accidentally' kick out some of the competition this way, as there were a lot more teams than usual.

Just like that two teams were already eliminated in the first five minutes of the contest. With two Assistants having been trampled to the ground during the material collection phase. Fortunately, they weren't dead, only severely bruised and unconscious when a few guards carried them off the stage. But without the Assistants, there was no way for the Artificers and Great Artificers to complete the artifacts they had planned in two hours, forcing them to withdraw with frustrated expressions on their faces.

But regardless of the disappointment of the two leaving teams, the other artificers just kept going, especially his father and Suan Bi who were exceedingly efficient with their every action to make sure they could finish in time.

Honestly, it was an exciting sight that got the onlookers blood-pumping, even Jing Jiang. Although he much more admired just how intensely focused the two were.

And how handsome Suan Bi looked...

Impressively they were able to keep up this pace for almost the whole 2 hours in which the Storm Spear Jing Jiang and his father had planned gradually took shape.

When they reached the final half-hour mark, Suan Bi handed the fourth-rank Spirit Core to Jing Hai, marking the start of the embedding process.

The moment Suan Bi and Jing Hai revealed the fourth-rank Spirit Core the crowd began to boil with excitement and attention quickly shifted toward their furnace. When the Qi of the Spirit Core then finally began to entangle itself with Jing Hai's, fighting back and creating gusts of wind that spilled into the crowd, pretty much nobody was still paying attention to the other contestants.

But it wasn't just Jing Hai who was impressive, Suan Bi was also deeply focused, holding onto the spear while continuously making sure the coals inside the furnace stayed at the exact same temperature.

20 more minutes passed and the embedding process reached its most crucial climax, leaving the crowd breathless in anticipation.

Jing Jiang also watched intently as his father pulled up the hammer in the strike he knew was the most important one.

His heart was racing, excited to see whether his father and Suan Bi would make it in time when suddenly, the harmonious pushing and pulling of the energies around his father turned chaotic, lashing out, almost too volatile to control.

Realizing that something was wrong, Jing Jiang's eyes widened in fright and he glanced at Suan Bi.

The other was still steadily holding onto the spear, so it must be the temperature! But they could still turn things around, his father was a Master Artificer, if they stabilized the heat again they could at least finish without any too serious consequences!

Anxiously observing for any signs that his father regained control, the only thing Jing Jiang saw was the Qi turn more and more frantic.

His face turned pale from one moment to the next and he began to shout for his father and Suan Bi, despite knowing it wouldn't do anything.

He tried to push his way to the front of the crowd but the people around him were just as agitated as him, creating an almost unpassable wall, but Jing Jiang still squeezed his way through, desperately shouting and staring with horror at his father and Suan Bi.

His father had his jaws clenched and his brows furrowed in concentration, looking almost unperturbed by everything that was going on.

If it wasn't for the trickle of blood running down the corner of his mouth and dripping down his chin.

Regardless, after glancing into the crowd at his desperately shouting son, Jing Hai fiercely raised the hammer above him and brought one last strike down on the Spirit Core, his eyes determined to complete this embedding successfully.

And the instant the hammer met the surface of the Spirit Core, a heavy 'Clonck' resounded in the entire plaza, chilling every onlooking artificer's heart.

The position of the hammer on the Spirit Core was slanted.

Immediately, blood splurted from Jing Hai's mouth as he stumbled back on the stage. But despite overwhelming pain rushing through Jing Hai's entire body like a tidal wave, he just turned his head to his right, at Suan Bi. An almost disbelieving expression had appeared on his face, but the other just pushed him aside, snatching the hammer out of his hands and continuing to hit the Spirit Core a few more times.

Meanwhile, Jing Hai stumbled and fell to the ground, too weak to resist even the slight push from Suan Bi, still throwing up blood.

"Father!"

Jing Jiang cried out, horrified, pushing even more recklessly through the crowd and almost tripping several times.

It still took him a while until he finally reached the edge of the stage, and when he finally did, he saw how his father was already being carried down the stairs by a pair of guards.

He raced over, grabbing his father's cold, blood-stained hands the moment he came close.

His heart skipped a beat at how strange his father's familiar hands felt now. So cold and lifeless.

"Father! What happened?"

Hearing his son's voice, Jing Hai's half-closed eyes regained some of their luster and he began to squeeze Jing Jiang's hands.

"Jiang'er, you're here."

Despite how drained Jing Hai felt and how painfully he furrowed his brows, he still twisted his bloody lips into a small smile.

Jing Jiang's heart ached looking at the state of his father and he could only repeat his previous question.

"Please, Father, what happened?"

Coughing out another mouthful of blood with a few dark chunks in it as Jing Hai opened his mouth slightly to answer his son's question. He pressed out a response with difficulty.

"Suan Bi, he... put out the coals and shifted the spear."

As if struck by lightning, Jing Jiang froze on the spot, his stomach dropped and he could only stare at his father in shock. He wanted to keep questioning his father but before his mind had recovered enough for him to form a cohesive sentence, Jing Hai's eyelids fell shud.

"Father! Father!", Jing Jiang screamed in fright, but Jing Hai didn't respond in any way. Instead, the guards who had been constantly moving even with Jing Jiang next to them, sped up their steps.

Feeling rushes of burning hot and bone-chilling cold go through his body at the same time, Jing Jiang fearfully clung to his father, shouting for him to wake up, trying desperately to find a pulse that confirmed his father was still alive. But he was unable to, as his own heartbeat shook through his entire body like thunder, almost deafening.

Tears ran down his cheeks as he followed the guards into the Mercenary Association where a group of pharmacists and alchemists waited for them. Jing Jiang only let go of his father's hand when one of the pharmacists assured him that, in spite of his current tragic condition, his father was still alive and just unconscious.

But this was barely any solace compared to the devastating news the pharmacist had told him right before, leaving his mind blank, unable to process what he had just heard, so he only knelt on the ground next to his father, squeezing the other's ice-cold hands, with his eyes wide open.

After a long while, cheeks sticky with his dried tears and his eyes hot from crying, Jing Jiang stood up from his kneeling position.

He needed to know what really happened.

After all, how could the embedding go so horribly wrong with his father's skills?

And what did his father mean by 'Suan Bi put out the coals and shifted the spear'?

Had it been intentional? At least judging from his father's words it sounded like that.

The thought alone was so gut-wrenching that it made Jing Jiang nauseous as he quickly ran out of the Mercenary Association, looking up at the stage just in time to see Suan Bi standing there with the spear in hand and winner's badge in the other, proudly beaming at the crowd who cheered enthusiastically.

Petrified, Jing Jiang halted his frantic movements.

...

How could he look like that?

How could he smile like that when his father had been on the verge of dying and lost his entire cultivation?

He remained standing in the same spot, in the same position, staring disbelieving the whole time Suan Bi waved into the crowd and finally made his way off the stage with the other teams.

Before he could completely disappear into the crowd however, Jing Jiang rushed over, pushing aside everyone and anyone that stood in his way and grabbing Suan Bi's wrist.

A startled expression appeared on Suan Bi's face after being roughly grabbed without warning, but the moment he realized it was none other than Jing Jiang who did it, his face became cold.

"Where are you going? My father is unconscious, he lost his entire cultivation, you have to go see him with me!", Jing Jiang demanded, shouting, his mind a mess and new tears threatening to spill, his throat clogged from all the previous crying.

But Suan Bi just sneered in disinterest, yanking his arm out of Jing Jiang's painfully tight grip, almost causing the latter to fall to the ground.

"So?", Suan Bi's voice was uncaring, impatiently rubbing his painful wrist, when suddenly he halted his actions and a ridiculing smile began to slowly pull up the corners of his mouth, turning his previously always so gentle brown eyes into cruel crescents, "Wait, do you still not get it? I saw you speaking with your father..., and I thought you had put two and two together!"

A sinking feeling enveloped Jing Jiang's entire being but he only stared at Suan Bi wide-eyed, unable to force out even the smallest sound.

But Suan Bi didn't care, stepping closer to Jing Jiang and leaning forward to whisper directly into the other's ear.

"I deliberately put out the coals and pulled the spear away," Suan Bi watched in satisfaction Jing Jiang's body tense up and breathing hitch, but he wasn't finished yet, "It's a pity your father didn't die in the process, I was hoping for it, then it would have been even easier to make Unbending Branch Forge disband."

Suan Bi sighed with faked pity as the grin on his face couldn't be wider, watching the shaking of Jing Jiang's body worsen with every word.

Finally, he took a step back, facing Jing Jiang head-on as he laughed at the other's ever-changing, horrified expression.

"But this is fine too."

Satisfied with Jing Jiang's reaction, Suan Bi was just about to turn around and leave when he heard a few trembling words behind him.

"...How could you be like this? I thought we were friends!"

A ridiculing snort escaped Suan Bi the moment he heard Jing Jiang's foolish words. Merely turning his head with disinterest, his eyes glinting in disgust.

"Friends? Never. In fact, you and your abhorrent desire for me have always disgusted me. Every day I felt sick to my stomach but had to put up with you, " saying this, Suan Bi couldn't help spitting to the ground in disgust before ultimately continuing on his way.

Unable to process Suan Bi's words, Jing Jiang remained standing motionlessly for a few seconds. However, when he realized that Suan Bi was about to disappear into the crowd without a trace and without a chance for him to find the other again, Jing Jiang reflexively raised his arm and wanted to run after the other.

But he halted his actions when he saw Suan Bi enthusiastically greet a woman with a small child next to her.

He watched in despair as Suan Bi picked up the young child who looked just like him and lifted it onto his shoulders, revealing the first and only genuine smile Jing Jiang had seen of Suan Bi before disappearing into the crowd.