Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 105: The Truth of Gleam

They descended the mountain, finding nothing waiting for them on the way down. Despite all the commotion that the crystal had caused, the mountain was completely empty. Chance and Bella didn’t question their good luck and kept a steady pace. Day stretched on and turned to night, casting the world in a silver glow.

“Should we try to camp for the night?” Chance asked as they walked. “I think we could probably just push on and reach the transport portal.”

“That’s probably the best move,” Bella said. “I don’t think time is our friend, and we’ll have time to rest once we get out of here. I did also just get to sit around cultivating for quite some time, so I’m refreshed. You’re the one that was awake. Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah, I won’t have any problems. I’ve been using a lot of Essence to keep my third eye open and scanning for Karmic threads, though. If we get into a big fight, I might not be quite as useful as I normally am.”

Bella chewed her lower lip. “Okay. It’s still better to know if we’ve got enemies coming. I’ll make up the slack, and Ocie can help too.”

A rock in front of them trembled. Bella drew for her Essence, then let her hands drop.

“Ocie also needs a better way to communicate than shaking rocks around.”

“We’ll work on it,” Chance promised, hiding a smile.

The shadows stretched longer, keeping them company as they walked. In the distance, Chance could hear the sounds of combat and muted blasts of Essence. He occasionally saw a flash light up the sky, but none of the combat seemed to be happening near them.

Without any interruptions, he and Bella made good time. By the time the moon was heading back toward its resting spot beneath the horizon and the sun’s rays had just barely started to begin turning the sky a muted purplish orange, they had started up the hills toward the ruins surrounding the exit portal.

Channce and Bella slowed as they passed through them, their guards raised. They clearly hadn’t been the first ones to the ruins. The signs of battle littered the ground and walls. Chance brushed a hand across a large, scorched boulder. He rubbed the ash between his fingers.

“Probably not worth checking the area out for anything worth taking,” Chance said. “We should just get out of here. I’m pretty sure anything we’d actually want would be long gone.”

“Agreed,” Bella said, keeping her voice low so it wouldn’t echo through the ruins. “I can see the pillar of light for the exit portal, so we’re close. If there’s somebody waiting to ambush us, they’ll either be right at the portal or pretty close to it.”

Chance nodded. “I’m watching for Karmic threads. Nothing so far. I’m honestly kind of surprised. I would have thought–”

He froze, jerking a hand up to grab Bella’s shoulder as a flicker of a glowing thread caught his eye. It was so thin that he barely noticed it, but now that his eyes were on it, he could just barely make out some of the other threads between the stone walls of the ruin.

“Found one,” Chance whispered. “Could be more. Hard to tell because of all the walls in the way.”

“Well, can’t say we weren’t expecting it,” Bella said. “What’s the strategy? We need them to activate the portal.”

“Ask politely?” Chance offered.

Bella glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes. “Seriously?”

“Maybe they’ll be nice. We might need to do a bit of coercing, though. Anyone waiting around at the exit probably isn’t too strong, right? The strong people would be out hunting.”

Bella inclined her head slightly. “That’s… a fair point. But anyone waiting around probably also isn’t going to be the friendliest of sorts.”

“That’s where the persuasion comes in,” Chance said, his smile growing a few degrees colder. “Ocie, want to help?”

Rubble rose up from the ground, pulling away from the cracked ruins and forming into Ocie’s craggy form. Stone melted together, forming into a surprisingly accurate golem – Ocie was getting a lot better at making herself look humanoid. It didn’t even have any glaring issues this time, though her eyes were still spaced much too far apart and her nose was at an angle that Chance had never seen a nose take.

“Do you want me to kill them?” Ocie asked.

“No,” Chance said quickly. “Not unless we have to. I don’t want to kill when we can avoid it. Besdies, we need someone to activate the exit portal.”

“Keep them alive, then,” Ocie said. “Understood. I will engage.”

Chance and Bella exchanged a glance.

“Should we at least try to talk first?” Chance asked.

Bella sighed. “You’re not going to be happy unless we do, are you?”

Chance grinned.

“Fine. Ocie, can you get in position and then wait until they inevitably attack Chance? Then we can start fighting afterward.”

Ocie nodded. She turned and slipped into the stone building, passing straight through it and vanishing. Chance watched the rock where she’d been standing, then grunted.

“That’s damn useful. Wish I could do that.”

“Seriously? The guy that controls fate itself is jealous he can’t walk through some rocks?”

“It’s not fate, it’s luck,” Chance corrected. “And I’m not sure if I can control luck or just influence it.”

“Technicalities. Get moving and try to talk to the people that are clearly waiting in ambush so we can get this started with already. I’m looking forward to a night of rest in an actual bed again.”

They continued forward, and Bella reinforced herself with her Essence once more. Chance did the same, calling on the golden mist and letting it wreath his feet as he walked. Trying to work things out peacefully was one thing, but he didn’t want to catch an arrow to the throat because he was trying to be nice.

The ruins made a large ring around the portal runes in the center of the cluster of mountains, and it didn’t take long for Chance and Bella to work their way through the rubble and arrive at the edge of the hills.

Below them, the teleportation circle waited. The beam of faint blue light rising up from it was so close that Chance could probably have touched it if he wanted to, and all the threads of Karma ran down into the remains of an overgrown house near the circle.

Chance nodded down to it. “Over there.”

“Conspicuous,” Bella said dryly. “Right next to the circle. They weren’t really taking any chances, were they? Better make sure you don’t step on the circle on the way over there. I don’t know how quickly it activates, but I’d hate to find out we just get launched back to the Dancing Cloud Sect and the waiting Shikari the moment you touch it.”

“Probably best to be safe,” Chance agreed. They made their way around the top of the hills, keeping to the ruins to help obscure themselves as they grew closer to the house. When they were behind it, they started down the steep hill.

Chance stepped blindly, not even looking where he was going. His luck guided his steps, making sure they all landed on solid ground. Bella did her best to copy his movements, but she had to move a little slower to avoid tripping.

Vines covered the back of the house, saving them from having to worry about if anyone was watching them through the window.

When Chance reached the house, he pressed his ear to the thin stone and listened, trying to hear if anyone was moving around behind it. There was only silence. Bella arrived beside him a moment later and raised an eyebrow.

Chance shook his head, and the two crept toward the front, stopping just before the remains of the doorway. He gathered his Essence at his Gate, pulling deeply on it to make sure whoever was waiting beyond it didn’t get the jump on him, then stepped out.

“Hello,” Chance said, raising a hand in greeting and plastering what he hoped was a comforting expression on his face. “I don’t meant to interrupt you, but–”

The words died on his lips.

“Oh,” Chance said. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Can’t say I felt the same,” Jade replied, looking up at him from the chair she was sitting in. She had her massive sword buried in the ground beside her and was resting a hand on the hilt. “I knew you were coming.”

“Did you?” Chance asked, glancing around in search of any other threads of Karma. He couldn’t see any.

Is Jade alone again? Or is Shae somehow hiding himself?

“Your friend told me you’d be coming.” Jade pushed herself out of the chair and Chance tensed, but she didn’t go for the sword. “What kind of company do you keep, Chance?”

“Lin… he’s his own person,” Chance said. “I don’t keep his company. I don’t think he gives people much of a choice when he decides to do something, actually. You know, now that I think about it, I’ve been running into a lot of people like that recently. Kind of annoying.”

“What are you talking about?” Jade asked. Chance opened his mouth and she shook her head. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to talk things out?” Chance asked. “The Shikari are after Bella and me for crimes we didn’t commit. Well, we kind of did. They attacked us first, though.”

Chance asked the question more out of obligation than actually expecting it to go anywhere. He’d seen Jade’s face in the vision within Lin’s Karmic threads. She’d watched Lin brutalize her mentor. If she hadn’t thought he was a monster then, there was almost no chance that –

“I’m standing here, aren’t I?” Jade asked.

Chance blinked. “What?”

“I’m telling you to talk.” Jade crossed her arms. “Lin told me you’d probably end up coming this way, and I want answers. He said you could give them to me.”

Chance stared at her in disbelief. “You mean talking it out is actually going to work for once?”

“Why do you sound so surprised?”

“Well, it usually ends with someone trying to kill me,” Chance replied, rubbing his chin. “You planning to do that?”

“Depends on how the talk goes.”

“Well, that’s pretty reasonable. Bella, you want to come out? Ocie as well. We might as well all sit down.”

The rock behind Jade rippled and Ocie stepped out. Jade leapt back, going for her sword, but Ocie just raised several chairs from the ground and sat down in one – or rather, on top of one. The back of the chair intersected perfectly with her body.

Bella stepped out from behind the house, her skin crystalline. She sent a suspicious look at Jade.

“Are you sure about this, Chance? She’s a Shikari.”

“If she’s willing to talk, we might as well,” Chance said. He glanced back at the portal. “Although this does mean we can’t exactly use her for the plan.”

“We can just wait for someone else to show up,” Ocie said. “I will keep watch. You three can talk.”

Ocie sank into the ground and vanished, taking her chair with her. Jade stared at the ground, then swallowed heavily.

“What was that?”

“Better keep the questions more to the topic at hand,” Chance said, walking up to one of the chairs. He sat down. Jade considered the chair beside her for a moment, then slowly lowered herself into it. Bella was the last to sit, and she still didn’t make any moves to release her Essence.

Chance kept his own at hand, though he let it pull back a little so it wasn’t quite so apparent.

“Okay,” Chance said. “What do you want to know?”

“The Shikari. I want to know why they’re after you,” Jade said, clenching her fists. “Something’s going on, and I want to know what. They’re acting strange.”

“It’s a pretty long story.” Chance rubbed his chin. To his surprise, it was Bella that stepped in.

“It’s because of a cultivator by the name of Vex. If you’re willing to speak, then we’ll let you know what’s actually happening in Gleam.”