Chapter 222 How?

--Meridian City, West Side | Fox Hill--

"I can't believe that I need to retreat from mortals!" Martha scoffed in humiliation, watching the [weak] mortal draw the Guided Arrow technique. Everyone there had it--but her!

Judging by their skill, she knew that they weren't elites. So it seemed that whoever was distributing it to mortals didn't regulate its use or force them to work centuries to obtain it!

Guided Arrow wasn't a joke--it was a military staple. Due to its flexibility, range, and growth potential, Guided Arrow was the most dangerous mid-level technique on the Sky Plane, classified higher than most heaven techniques!

For that reason, she needed to retreat, especially because she was wounded.

"At least I have a lead about where Mary is." Martha winced in pain, dodging more arrows and shooting backward in the sky, "I'm sure I'll find them again soon."

The brunette turned and flew away at high speed. However--

WhooooOOOohhHhhoOosh!

--a massive bolt of Qi the size of a Sky Plane soldier's shot at her from her flank.

"Another enemy!?" Martha cried, looking at a massive bolt of Raw Qi moving from her left flank, "It doesn't matter, it's just one arrow. I can--"

When she moved out of the way, it anticipated her high-speed movements and followed her, shocking her senseless. She moved again, and so did it like clockwork.

"What is this!?" She cried, moving back at high-speed, twisting her body at the last moment, "Who are--GUH!"

Martha coughed up blood when she felt the massive Qi bolt pierce through her stomach and curve upward, cutting through her back. "H-How...."

The arrow [sped up] at the last moment. So while it wasn't fast enough to keep up and pierce the cultivator's heart, it hit her stomach as the woman flew up.

Still, she was lucky. If it moved up only a few more inches, it would have pierced her lungs, and darkness would have clouded her eyes. She barely survived.

Martha continued moving on adrenaline alone, carrying her forward after the clean shot. She looked back at the last moment and saw something horrifying. "You...."

A pair of murderous eyes shot through her soul, belonging to the brunette she ambushed. While missing an arm, she was already loading another massive arrow as if it was only natural.

The sight sent dread and primal fear through the cultivator, watching from above.

Martha didn't know what attacks hit the buildings in the distance when she flew forward.

However, her instincts and knowledge of Sky Plane cultivators being in the Mortal Plane told her to sneak attack the brunette to be safe--her instincts proved correct.

Rein nearly killed her despite getting hit with a sneak attack and losing an arm. If she hadn't taken her seriously, she would be dead.

The short-haired brunette wasn't finished. She aimed another arrow at the cultivator, using a sensory enhancement technique from Kaze to lock on. "You're not getting--GOD DAMN IT!"

BOOOOOM!

She wasn't paying attention to the surroundings and found a flood of zombies rushing her position. So she was forced to re-aim and shoot them, cutting a path to escape.

"Che. Coward." Rein scoffed, seeing the bleeding cultivator flying in the distance after she escaped, "You're lucky your spineless ambush attracted more zombies, or you'd be dead."

She wanted to pursue the cultivator, but more zombies flooded in, Larkin was badly wounded, and others got killed. So she snapped back to attention and set to work, helping everyone escape.

-

--Five Hours Later | Immortal Skye--

"So the cultivator is grievously wounded?" Kaze asked after a deep breath, closing his eyes in frustration.

"It's been hours, so I'm sure she's healed herself by now." Rein replied, shaking her head.

The emperor laughed once, nearly a hiccup. "While our elites know Minor Healing, it's doubtful more than a few thousand can use it in the Sky Plane. If she's wounded, she will die."

Her eyes trembled in confusion. "Wait, the techniques we are rare?"

"Minor Healing is very rare, yes." Kaze replied, "According to the books I've read, families in the Sky Plane and above monopolize it. Guided Arrow isn't rare, but it is prized--you didn't see her using the technique, did you?"

Rein blinked twice in disbelief, realizing that the woman only used air blades. "I didn't.... Kaze, who are--wait! Don't touch me there, you creep!"

"It's time to go." The emperor replied, picking up the brunette in a forced princess carry, kicking and squirming, "Unless you want to stay?"

"I want to go." She froze, turning bright red when she realized she was in a princess carry, "B-Bu-But does it have to be like this!?"

"You can have a piggyback ride if you wish." Kaze replied with a cool smile, "However, I suggest you move quickly; we haven't the time to waste on embarrassment."

Rein blushed again, reaching the ground, quickly circling him, and jumping on his back. "T-Thanks.... I appreciate you letting mehHHhhHHeEEEEEee KAZE!"

The brunette stopped being thankful when he shot in the air at an absurd speed, far faster than what Martha did, catching her off guard--while she was holding onto his back!

For a moment, she even wished she was still in his arms, but the idea made her blood boil unnaturally, and she wrapped her arms against his neck, holding on for dear life.

***

Martha lay on a rooftop, watching clouds with a sickly expression. She was heavily anemic after bandaging her thigh wound, which grazed her femoral artery, and stomach wound.

The wheezing cultivator didn't know how things had gone wrong.

While she wasn't a military elite, she was a respected cultivator chosen to find mortals to train for platoons. "This... cough, cough... was supposed to be easy... so... how?"

How? That question encapsulated everything on her mind.

The Killian Faction was raising mortals without cultivation experience with common Sky Plane techniques. They should have been defenseless or at least relatively weak.

Yet there she was, dying on a rooftop, shot down by mortals.

How did mortals get a Killian Military technique?

How did they learn how to use it?

How were they cultivating proficiently with earth-grade breathing techniques?

How did the short-haired brunette create a larger bolt than earth-grade breathing techniques should allow?

How? How! HOW!?

It would be one thing if the people she encountered were from the Sky Plane. However--

"I..." Martha whispered, coughing after, "Remember... that woman...."

Jackson Street Park was multiple miles long and wide, filled with tens of thousands from the city on June 2nd when she appraised Kaze and Evalyn.

While she didn't have a photographic memory, she appraised hundreds in the proximity of others, trying to find good candidates.

As a result, she saw Rein and the lanky, brown-haired clown that shot her first, both with closed meridians, hoping for techniques--and neither got one! So how!?

Thinking about Larkin triggered another face to flash across her mind.

"I wonder... cough... about him...." Martha chuckled in pain, "The man... with the disease... cough-cough-cough... on his face...."

The person in her mind wore a pink shirt with a clean haircut and had a charming countenance.

However, his face was riddled with red [sores], which she genuinely believed were caused by a disease.

Since Soul Qi prevented non-Qi-related diseases, acne didn't exist in the Sky Plane. So she assumed the teen, lacking a body constitution, was sick and thus couldn't give him an offensive technique.

However, Martha found him aggravatingly charming and confident. So she gave him a dual cultivation technique as a strange form of respect.

By doing that, she could claim it was a joke, justifying her action.

It was a benign action. However, she only had one dual cultivation technique--poor as it was vulgar--that someone gave to her as a joke, telling her to get laid!

Martha found giving the charming human a technique that represented her depressing sex life amusing.

Still, it gave him a chance, so she figured if Larkin got a better technique, he would be there, perhaps even with Evalyn, her star candidate.

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"If... he's used... cough... that obscene... cough, cough... dual cultivation... technique... on Evalyn Skye... cough-cough-cough... I'll kill him." Martha said, coughing while laughing.

"I'll only use techniques if a woman wants me to use them." A hypnotic, charming voice called out from behind her, "And I assure you, Evalyn would never ask for such a technique."

Martha's eyes shot open in disbelief, and she tried to turn, ripping open her stomach wound. "GuhhHhhh...."

The cultivator winced in pain, eyes closed. When she opened them, she found a massive bolt of Qi aimed at her face, making her heart pulse.

She instinctively tried rolling, adrenaline fighting against her wounds. However, her body was frozen, multiplying her panic.

Luckily, the arrow didn't fire either; she and the person threatening her were static, frozen in time.

While the strange phenomenon saved her life, it had a horrifying eerieness to it.

Step. Step. Step.

"I wouldn't try moving, Martha." The hypnotic voice called out, circling her from the other side with rhythmic movements, "You're facing a very angry woman who wants to kill you.

I froze her body, but I'm liable to release both of your bodies if you struggle too much."