Published at 13th of November 2026 12:20 pm

Chapter 44 Challenging Communication

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Burning Heaven had no intention of waiting around for Tian to fight his duel with the necromancer. They were in the sky. Flying up was an option, and one she took. The zombies managed to keep pace, at least enough to rush in for the clash. With one notable exception. The decayed corpse was pinned to the sky, howling and thrashing as Tian crushed its head with a hand made of righteous qi. Jets of white-gold flame rose from fissures in the skin, the visible bones roasting, the oily black painting them calcifying, flaking away to reveal the white bone beneath. Then that, too, calcified, the dust blowing away on the wind.

How dare you! Brat, you will replace her. You, your companions, your mount, all of you will serve me in death! I will turn you into zombies while you are still alive. You will experience the pleasures of rot and decay as your souls are trapped in your bodies, unable to reincarnate. I will make you suffer a thousand tortures, make you suffer ten thousand humiliations for this!

Some people just love to hear themselves talk, Tian thought. Even if they can only talk nonsense. Like crickets or cicadas. It means something to them, but its just noise to me.

He could feel curses and necrotic energy ripping away at the righteous qi. He could imagine quite easily what it would do to most cultivators, and most spells for that matter. Rot and decay. He snorted and shook his hand. The zombie scattered, ash on the wind as Tian turned to face the three zombies that had managed to close distance. Liren and burning Heaven were busy with their own enemies. These would belong to Tian.

The zombies came in formation. The green furred zombie came in from the front, with the swordsman hovering a little back and to the side, while the woman floated behind them. They moved in series. The green furred horror sweeping out with its ragged claws, rushing inward, trying to crush Tian in its arms and pierce him with the needle sharp poisoned fur covering its body. The swordsman waited until the brute was filling Tians vision before darting in from the side to strike. From the back, the murdered bride drew a black and gold fan from the sash of her dress, and sent gusts of poison with fluttering flicks. It might not threaten Tian, but it could well be fatal for Liren or Burning Heaven. He wasnt their only target.

Tian changed from open palms to his staff. While his staff art was far from his palm art in refinement, it did have the advantage of a heavy stick, and with it, leverage. The staff swept out and crashed into the iron-hard green furred zombie. Had the zombie been capable of thought, Tian imagined it might be grinning. It had caught the blow aimed at its head on an abnormally long forearm. The blow hissed and smouldered against the green needle-fur, but no serious harm was done. Then the staff extended and dipped, slipping around the arm and under the armpit.

Much of the Inner Court didnt make it inside the ward. Most of the surviving Outer Court did. Each of them would be considered a legendary wandering martial artist in the Broadsky Kingdom. The best of them, the brothers and sisters of West Town Outer Court, had taught Tian how to fight with a staff. Striking was mere child's play for those wandering heroes. You could bind someone with a staff. Trap them, put them in joint locks, push them around where you willed, all with your staff. Of course, it helped to have muscle.

Tian had the muscle, and while he was two thirds the zombies size, he was firmly planted on the back of Burning Heaven. She was currently big enough to carry a squad of troopers and their horses on her back. Leverage was on his side, not the zombies. It might have lacked the grandeur of the Heavenly Realm, but Tian found locking the arm and shoulder of a slavering, demonic looking horror and slamming it into an undead swordsman hard enough to send both plummeting to the ground highly satisfying. It wouldnt kill them. It might not even do much damage. But he didnt have to destroy them to win. He just had to keep moving forward.

The bride zombie didnt stop fluttering her fan. Tian could see the poison come over in long streams, looking to wrap them all up. He used his staff to send a sharp jab of righteous qi at the zombie, and particularly the fan. She quickly snapped the fan shut and blocked with the iron ribbing, somewhat successfully it seemed, though her hand looked scorched. Tian didnt mind. He was after time, not damage. He pulled a glass ball the size of a plum from his storage ring, one of the oddities he had looted that had made grandpa so happy. He poured wood qi into it, and a breeze sprung up around him. The poison dust was pulled inward, and drawn into the bead. It took longer to say than to do. By the time the zombie had her fan out again, the first few salvos of poison had been cleanly absorbed before they could manage any harm.

The Zombie decided to change her methods, or perhaps it was the necromancer who changed his mind, Tian was never quite sure how much of the mind remained in a zombie. Her jaw unhinged, dropping open and revealing a snakes fangs. She spat a green bolus out ahead of Burning Heaven. Tian struck at it with a thrust of Righteous Qi. Rather than destroying it, the bolus exploded, spreading a cloud of stinking green-black gas through the sky. For a few seconds, their senses were blocked. Tian drew in the gas with his glass orb as quickly as he could, but it still took time. When the cloud was clear, they were surrounded once more.

The two knocked down zombies had returned, a bit scuffed but seemingly no worse for wear. The gu master with six wings was catching up quickly from behind, while two heavily armored heretics flew down with lances extended from above.

Heaven and Hell have both locked their gates against you, and the eight directions hold no escape. Surrender, confess everything, and at least your deaths will be peaceful.

The corner of Tians mouth twitched. It was exactly what they expected, yet keeping with the ethos of the Heavenly Realm, the speaker remained hidden. The weakest were dead, the second weakest were shoved out in front, and the slightly stronger ones remained hidden in the shadows. Some things didnt change, it seemed.

Escape art now? Burning Heaven asked.

No, they are waiting for that. Once you use that kind of art, you are helpless and any damage you take is magnified. No, what is needed now isnt escape. Let Brother and Sister show you.

Tian smiled, a sunny, radiant smile, at the assembled heretics. Everyone had taken up position around Burning Heaven, keeping pace with her. A mobile sort of prison. Since they were kind enough to remain still relative to him, he wouldnt be polite. He opened his mouth to speak, secretly preparing to make a move.

Weaklings dont have the right to dictate terms to the strong. Liren had beaten him to the punch yet again. The words had barely left her mouth when a spear vanished from her hand, appearing momentarily when it struck a beetle shell that appeared before the Gu master, before spear, shield, and gu master vanished in a ball of fire qi so intense, it ignited the chaotic wood qi in the air, causing biting snakes of lightning to bite at the remains of the insectile heretic. The heretics started to attack, but paused. The gu master had been directly behind Liren. Her back was still to him. So just how had she done it?

Tian groped for a good line to follow up with, and drew a blank. He was sure hed find the perfect line in his notebooks later. He snatched the green furred zombie out of the air with two hands made of righteous qi, the hulking monster looking suddenly small between their palms. He pressed his hands together, and with a few sharp movements, began to grind. The zombie howled, yanking everyones attention back around to Tian.

He had it! He would crush their will with just a few words. He drew hs spine straight and with a supercilious sneer, opened his mouth.

Dare to beat the dogs? Have you asked to their master first? Hahaha! Die for this Demon! Die as the rest of you dregs have died- miserably!

Heavenly Demon had doubled back on his flying tiger, moving faster than anyone else in sight. The tiger pounced on one of the high-flying lancers as the laughing Demon tore the other in half with his aura. The encirclement was broken, for the moment, and with it, the heretics nerve. They were the ones who ambushed and encircled. They didnt care to fight if it was the other way around, and they certainly werent going to trust reinforcements to arrive in time. The heretics scattered, flinging out smoke clouds, illusions, quick acting talismans more intended to district than harm.

Tian went after the other zombies, but the necromancer was unwilling to take another loss. Two coffins slammed down in front of the swordsman and the woman, who quickly made their escape. Tian tried to catch them, but the wood was shockingly durable. He left a mark on the coffins anyhow. Just in case.

Liren and Burning Heaven took the opportunity to finally finish off the gu master. He was maddeningly agile, and tough enough to shrug off anything less than a direct, full force strike. The two teamed up. Burning Heaven saturated the air around the heretic with rainbow light, slowing him, damaging his wings enough to stop his darting around. Liren threw three spears in quick succession. The first he dodged. The second caught his hip and sent him into a spin. The third hit just below the clavicle, angled down. The explosion of the comparatively soft spear decelerating violently inside the comparatively hard Heavenly torso saw said torso ripped nearly in two.

The skies had temporarily cleared. The dots of light in the distance were still there, however, and Tian knew damn well the more effective, stronger heretics were still in hiding. Worse, so were the people behind the heretics.

Heavenly Demon, if you can get the poison off Sis Liren and Burning Heaven, please do so immediately. Ill try to buy some time.

This Demon shall condescend to do so. It would reflect poorly on him to lose his steward so soon after employing them. Tian detected an unseemly degree of relish in the word employ but it wasnt the time to pursue it.

How will you buy time? Who will you even buy it from? Burning Heaven asked. They landed on a patch of rock jutting from the desert floor, so that Burning Heaven could shrink to a more convenient size.

Easy. Tian flew back up into the air on his leaf and let his qi fill his voice.

You can keep sending people to die. You can keep coming to die. We dont mind. It is satisfying, like properly organizing a drawer, or setting out your tea table just so. Putting things where they belong. Tian missed the way Heavenly Demon froze for a second, and slid a calculating glance up at him before getting back to work on Burning Heaven. Liren didnt, though.

You can aid me in my avocation of purifying the world of heresy and heretics, or you can send out well, not the actual person pulling the strings, obviously they dont dare come, but a reasonably senior slave who can speak with their voice.

His voice carried over the red sands, over the exposed rocky outcrops, over the demons and heretics hidden in the sand and shadows and crevices, outwards, calm and clear to those hidden behind arrays.

I am quite happy to tell you everything. Every little detail. I will omit nothing of substance. I didnt want to before, because I really dislike being told to do things by people I dont trust, but it occurs to me that this is perfect. I want you to know now. I want all of you to know everything.

He smiled again, bright as the sun over a man dying of thirst. I want all of you to die. So I will tell you what you want to know. Everyone is happy, everyone gets what they need. What could be better than that?

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