(2) Joining Forces Against a Common Foe

When the Celestial Sovereign heard that the Celestial Court had descended into chaos over a single woman, a nameless fury rose in his heart at once; he lifted his foot, and in an instant he had drifted to the scene.

　　"Xue'er?" Yet the moment the Celestial Sovereign laid eyes on Anu, he could not help but cry out in astonishment.

　　Xue'er — that was, of course, the Asura Queen's given name. The Celestial Sovereign had lost his heart to her at first sight all those years ago, and even now she still haunted his dreams, impossible to forget. Perhaps that was simply the truth of it — the thing you can never have is always the dearest. And within the Celestial Court's royal house especially, men were faithless toward women; however lovely a woman might be, she could never escape beauty's slow decline with age, and there was always a new face to smile for while the old one wept unheard. Back then, Xue'er had turned without hesitation and thrown herself into the Asura King's embrace, wounding the Celestial Sovereign's heart to the quick. The undying enmity between the two clans owed no small part to this very matter.

　　Anu's face was the very image of Xue'er's, down to the last feature.

　　"No — Xue'er could never be this young. You must be Xue'er's daughter. Xue'er has a daughter?" The Celestial Sovereign bent low, reaching out a hand to pull Anu up, but Xiaoyi only drew her closer still, refusing to let the Sovereign so much as touch her.

　　Anger flared in the Celestial Sovereign, and his glare turned on Xiaoyi.

　　"A mere lingzhi spirit, daring to act so insolently before me?" With a sweep of his broad hand, the Celestial Sovereign unleashed a surge of deep, powerful energy that flung Xiaoyi away from Anu; Xiaoyi was sent sprawling to the ground, and spat out a mouthful of blood.

　　"Xiaoyi... Xiaoyi..." Anu, realizing with a jolt that the Celestial Sovereign had struck him down, rushed to his side and pulled him up.

　　"Xiaoyi, go, quickly — don't throw your life away for nothing." Anu looked him over frantically, unable to tell how badly he was hurt, and the anguish written across her face only stoked the Celestial Sovereign's displeasure further.

　　In truth, Anu knew nothing at all of the old history between her parents and the Celestial Sovereign — she had grown up in the Mist Forest from birth, and no one had ever thought to tell her such stale, long-buried matters. She did not know, and neither did Xiaoyi. In Anu's eyes, the Celestial Sovereign was simply the man who had killed her brothers, nothing more; and Xiaoyi thought of nothing but shielding Anu — he feared the Sovereign might harm her, and feared even more that he might lay claim to her.

　　"If you won't go, then neither will I. If we go, we go together — if we die, we die together." Xiaoyi's face was ashen as he spoke.

　　"A lingzhi spirit who doesn't know how high the sky is or how deep the earth runs — let's see just how much you're capable of, protecting this Asura girl." The Celestial Sovereign's face darkened, and he snapped harshly at Deng Liang: "What are you standing there for? Reset the formation."

　　Deng Liang hesitated, taken aback — just the two of them, and they meant to use an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken? And one of them wasn't even Asura — was the formation to be turned on the Asura girl alone?

　　Even setting aside her beauty unmatched across the Three Realms, she was still nothing more than a helpless woman. How could they bring themselves to strike her down?

　　"Will you not act?" The Celestial Sovereign's fury flared hotter still, and Deng Liang, seeing this, dared not defy him. He gave the order, arraying the formation once more, murmuring the incantation under his breath. At once Anu clutched her head in both hands, her skull throbbing as though it might split apart.

　　Seeing this, Xiaoyi drew his guqin from the boundless space within his sleeve, settled himself, and poured the whole of his power into his ten fingertips, playing out a clear, flowing melody like drifting clouds and running water. He was, after all, a disciple personally trained by Elder Mu — even as a lingzhi spirit who had not yet fully taken human form, his power was nothing to dismiss lightly. His interference worked at once: the effect of that sinister incantation upon Anu eased considerably.

　　"Anu! Strike first and seize the advantage — use your dagger-pair against these Celestial soldiers." The splitting pain in her head had barely begun to ease when Xiaoyi's voice came at once, urging her on.

　　"Yes." Anu drew breath and turned a somersault in the air; the Qian dagger flew from her hand straight for Deng Liang's forehead, while the Kun dagger split into five thousand images at once, each one plunging into the brow of a Celestial soldier. In an instant, anguished cries rose up from the Celestial soldiers on every side as they crumpled to the ground, and the formation collapsed of its own accord.

　　Anu had no wish to take the soldiers' lives — her aim was to save Xiaoyi, not to kill. Even though these men had mercilessly slain her three brothers, a debt was owed by the one who incurred it, and they had only been following orders; she had no wish to end their lives. Let them merely taste, for once, that same splitting agony she had felt.

　　She called back the paired daggers, turned lightly on her heel, and struck out at the Celestial Sovereign.

　　For a moment the Celestial Sovereign was caught off guard — this girl was unexpectedly fierce, her temperament nothing at all like Xue'er's. Xue'er had been gentle and yielding, never one to strike out so boldly the instant she was crossed — and here was her daughter, showing not the faintest trace of fear even before the Celestial Sovereign himself.

　　The Celestial Sovereign flung his broad sleeve wide, sweeping aside the first pincer strike of the paired daggers. Then, all at once, the ringing notes of Xiaoyi's guqin surged into his ears once more — no longer defense but attack, a torrent as fierce and roiling as floodwater, shaking every Celestial being present until their breath grew ragged and their spirits reeled; they clapped their hands over their ears and scattered in every direction, and even the Celestial Sovereign found himself forced to press his fingers together and murmur the Calming Spell.

　　Close on its heels, Anu's second wave of attacks, driven on by the current of Xiaoyi's music, bore straight down upon the Celestial Sovereign's face. He was still in the midst of chanting, unable to spare his attention, but seeing the twin daggers bearing down on him one after the other, he threw up his free hand in hasty defense; as his deep, rich power surged from his palm, the Qian dagger's advance was checked, but the Kun dagger vaulted past it and pressed on ahead. The Celestial Sovereign twisted backward to dodge the Kun dagger's strike, but it caught his sleeve, slicing a gash clean through the fabric. He had barely steadied his footing when he saw Anu before him, the Seven-Colored Flowing Light Sword raised as though to run him through; he spun his hand back to strike the blade aside, only for the paired daggers to come sweeping in again from both sides, forcing him to fend off the two of them first — and in that single opening, the clear chime of the Seven-Colored Flowing Light Sword brushing lightly against Anu's arm-bracelet rang out, and the violet flower mark upon her brow quietly bloomed into view. Seeing this, Xiaoyi shifted the notes of his guqin into bewitching strains, meaning to clear the way in advance for Anu's enchantment spell.

　　The Celestial Sovereign, caught fumbling and off balance, had in truth underestimated them badly — he had never imagined these two youngsters, joining their strength together, could press him back so hard on every side. He had no notion, in that moment, of what still awaited him. Anu fought first to save Xiaoyi from danger, and second to avenge her three brothers; soft-hearted as she was by nature, even she found herself wishing, just then, that she could kill the Celestial Sovereign outright. But she was still, after all, a girl who knew little of the world — even if she did kill him, neither she nor Xiaoyi could hope to escape death afterward, and the Asura clan itself would surely be doomed to utter ruin. Xiaoyi was little better off; he knew even less of the world beyond, having grown up entirely within the Mist Forest, never once setting foot outside it, his whole heart and mind bent on nothing but Anu — if Anu lived, he lived; if Anu died, he would not go on living either. And more than that, he had just now caught, in the Celestial Sovereign's eyes, a certain look toward Anu unlike any other — and that, above all else, was the one thing he could not let stand. It was a sharpness only another man could sense, and come what may, he would never let the Celestial Sovereign have his way. And so, when Anu meant to strike the Celestial Sovereign down without mercy, Xiaoyi threw the whole of his strength behind her.