250: Surprise Gift

Surprise Gift

"I took her ultimatum too lightly." I shook my head after recovering myself. "I thought she was merely using the lives of the villagers as a threat to coerce me into surrendering. But from the look of it, she has been planning this all along."2

If I didn't give her Twin Stars, she would simply use this ritual to strengthen her power and take the swords from me by force. And if I did give her Twin Stars … Well, I suppose there was no harm in following through with the plan and using that strengthened power to kill me instead.

"She's meticulous." Bai Ye's voice was icy. "She made sure to scare the villagers enough so that they wouldn't dare venture into the woods and discover this. If not for the group of brave men searching here today, no one would've noticed any signs of it." He clenched the map in his hand. "And without tracing out the full symbol, no one would've identified the purpose of such a setup."

I glanced at the etching in the snow. "Those must be trail marks that she left for her own use, but she didn't realize that I can feel their call just as well as she can. Or even—"

I paused at the next thought coming into my head. "Or even modify them as well as she can." I turned to Bai Ye. "If we destroy these markers and power amplifiers right now, she will know that we've noticed it. What if I try tweaking them instead the same way I worked those portals at the cave? If the paths end up close enough to the original symbol, she wouldn't be able to tell the difference until she completes summoning the spell. That would buy us more time while she wastes all her effort and spiritual power on that ritual."

Bai Ye raised an eyebrow. "It surprises me that you're able to come up with such a devious plan," he said in a somewhat admiring tone. "I do know of a few similar symbols to that effect … How about one to summon rodents?"

"…" How could there exist a symbol to summon rodents? And how could it be similar to a symbol of sacrifice? Though I suppose that such an option would work perfectly for our needs, and I was even somewhat eager to see what the sword spirit's face would look like when she discovered our surprise gift. "Draw it for me?" I smiled and gestured at the map.

He obliged. I trained my eyes on his writing brush, following the new lines wiggling through the circles and crosses carefully, and I imagined what it would be like to walk that path with my own feet. Then I placed my hand on the etching in the snow, reaching for the power that guided me before and gently tugged on it.

A vague form of existence opened up before me, like an expanse of moist sand ready to be molded. I willed it to change its shape, tracing the lines on the map and beckoning for it to follow my lead. The familiar power flow around me swayed and warped, slowly but steadily until it gradually settled, and the etching in the snow pulsed once with a bright white light before darkening, turning back into the same appearance it had been before.

I stood up, taking a stride forward to test the new directions that the marker was trying to guide me. Step by step, I successfully traced a segment of the new symbol before arriving at the next stop—the second etching in the tree bark—and I repeated the modification until I worked through all the etchings linking the symbol together.

"I think this would do it," I said when I returned to the mound of snow where I started from. "I didn't alter the markers, and I tried to keep the spiritual power flow as close to the original as possible. She shouldn't notice any difference unless she tries really hard to look for it."

"Which she wouldn't," Bai Ye commented. "As long as we don't tell anyone—including the villagers—about what we discovered, she shouldn't be suspicious of anything yet. She's unaware of your ability to meddle with her spells so far, and that works to our advantage."

I winced a little at keeping the news from the villagers. Yang-Yang would have to live in fear for a few more days … But staying cautious was the right thing to do. So I nodded and checked the etchings one more time while Bai Ye uttered a spell, removing all my trails that followed the original symbol. By the time we were done, the only traces left in the area were random footprints resembling that of the villagers.

"This should solve our problem at hand now," I said with a tiny relief as we started making our way back downhill. "The sword spirit won't be able to summon any malicious rituals immediately … though that doesn't mean she'll stop at this. We'll have to watch her even more closely from now on."

But Bai Ye only looked up into the dark sky, and the slight frown on his face told me that his worries hadn't been eased. "We might thwart her this time," he sighed, "but she needs power desperately, and nothing would stop her from repeating this same process somewhere else. We might not always be lucky enough to track her down in time … What we need is a permanent solution that can put an end to all of this for good."

"That's what your readings are for, isn't it?" I squeezed his hand. "I'll find other ways to buy you more time if you need it. The sword spirit will meet the right end for her, sooner or later."

The tension in his expression lessened a little. "She will," he smiled. "Now, are you planning to go back to the boy's house tonight, or are you coming back home to watch me continue reading those books?"

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