Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 111: Lucky me

“Who are you?” Jie took a step back, his eyes darting over Chance’s shoulder nervously.

“A friend of Quinn’s,” Chance replied.

Jie’s features froze as Chance mentioned Quinn’s name. His hands clenched at his sides and he swallowed.

“Does Drayan know you’re here?”

“Nope. Is that a problem?”

Jie quickly took a step back into the room, making room for Chance to enter. Once he stepped inside, Jie reached past him and closed the door. Judging by its interior, they were in an unused guest room.

A soft bed sat near a sparkling window, and a wooden dresser sat beside a desk on the opposite side of the room to the bed. Jie watched Chance with a distraught expression on his face.

“She’s dead, isn’t she?”

“No, actually.”

Jie’s eyes widened. “Truly? I am honored that she and Nimea saw fit to send someone to notify me of their return. I had no idea they had returned. I am not worthy of this honor. But… why are you here?”

“Sorry,” Chance said. “I wasn’t totally clear. Nimea didn’t make it. Only Quinn did. She sent us here to speak with you.”

Jie took a moment to process Chance’s words. Then, to Chance’s surprise, Jie’s features darkened. “I am relieved to hear Quinn has survived, but that means she has left the Ancient Realm and is here, yes? Then you – and she – must leave. You are not safe.”

“That’s why I’m here to speak with you,” Chance said, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. “Are you being mistreated or kept here against your will?”

Jie hurried over to the window, pulling the curtains shut. He turned back to Chance and pressed his lips together before giving a sharp nod. “Yes. The Brackern Sect is a wretched place. Please, take Quinn and get her out of here. If Nimea is dead, then she has an opportunity to escape. The rest of us are not so lucky.”

“You can’t leave?” Chance asked, though he suspected he already knew the reason why.

“The elders of the Brackern Sect pass down their cultivation technique of the Essence of Binding. We do not even have time to speak. Please. Trust me. Take Quinn and leave. I don’t–”

Someone knocked on the door. Jie stiffened, his eyes going wide. He urgently gestured for Chance to take cover, holding a finger to his lips.

“The chef needs access to the cellar, you imbecile,” called a man. His voice sounded roughly middle aged, with a slight aristocratic lilt to it. “Did you lock it again? Nobody can get in.”

Chance rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. Jie glanced from Chance to the door, then urgently gestured for Chance to move. “Please accept my forgiveness, Master Earn. I will head to the cellar post haste, as soon as I have finished cleaning–”

“Now,” the voice snapped. “Open the door, Jie.”

Jie’s fingers twitched and his arms suddenly snapped down to his sides. He woodenly reached for the door, twisting the handle and pulling it open. A tall man stood on the other end, clad in soft yellow clothes. He had a well-maintained goatee and bushy black eyebrows – neither of which did much to cover the scowl on his face.

“Master Earn, I presume?” Chance asked, inclining his head slightly as the man gaped at him.

“Who in the devils are you?” Earn demanded, taking a shocked step back and raising his hands.

“A visitor from the Dancing Cloud sect,” Chance replied with a soft smile. He inclined his head in a show of respect. “I hope I haven’t been intruding too much. I asked your servant to show me around this beautiful mansion. It is almost as large as my father’s.”

Earn’s mouth worked as he stared at Chance, trying to make sense of the sight before him. Chance had absolutely no plans of letting the man get his mental feet out from under him. He stepped out of the room, gently pushing past Jie, and extended a hand.

“My name is Chance. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Jie spoke very highly of you and Master Drayan.”

Chance’s Gate warmed as he pulled on the Essence within it. Golden mist gathered on the floor near his feet, but Earn’s eyes were so focused on his face that he didn’t even notice. Taken completely off guard, he slowly reached out and shook Chance’s hand.

“I was unaware that anyone was visiting,” Earn said suspiciously, his gaze drifting over to Jie, who stood horrorstruck behind Chance. “I am pleased to hear that Jie spoke well of us, though.”

“The fault is mine. I was so impatient to see more of this beautiful sect that I insisted he show me around without any wait,” Chance said. He let out a gentle laugh. “I am unused to waiting, Master Earn.”

Talking like this feels so disgusting, but I feel like this is what they’d expect some rich brat from a big sect to talk like, right?

Chance had no idea if it was his acting or just sheer surprise paired together with his complete confidence, but whatever it was, it worked. Earn nodded, letting a flicker of a smile drift across his lips.

“As am I, Master Chance. You said you were from the Dancing Cloud sect, yes? They are a noble one, though we have not had the blessing to work together in the past. What purpose has brought you to the Brackern sect?”

“Business,” Chance replied, crossing his hands behind his back. “I had heard that your sect has some… unique abilities.”

Chance repressed his disgusted grimace as he spoke, but a sly smile crossed over Earn’s features.

“Ah, yes. I should have guessed from the start.” Earn chuckled and clapped Chance on the shoulder. “A young man of your age should have great want of our services. Even if our goods may not be worthy of being a proper consort, there is always room for concubines. No sect will provide you with escorts as obedient as ours.”

Chance’s third eye snapped open, practically of its own volition. Strands of Karma spun out from Earn. Visions played within each line of glowing light – and what Chance saw within them filled him with revulsion.

The Essence within Chance swirled in response to his fury. When Chance reflected back on it, he would have almost been tempted to say that it acted of its own accord – but, deep down, he knew it didn’t.

His Essence didn’t do anything that he didn’t want it to. There was no external factor that controlled him in any way. Every action he took was his own, deliberate and intentional without even the slightest ounce of hesitation.

The swirling ball of power that rested beside his Gate, right in the center of his solar plexus, erupted with power. Gold energy washed out from Chance, lighting the hallway up like a miniature sun had formed within it.

Earn flinched back, his hands rising up to cover his eyes as he cried out in surprise. Golden mist formed into a hand on Chance’s back, and it drove forth, open palmed, into Earn’s head.

The man didn’t even get time to be properly surprised. The palm slammed him into the wall, pulverizing his body and shattering the stone behind it with a massive crash. What remained of his body slipped down and pitched to the ground, blood pouring out of it and pooling at Chance’s feet.

Chance dismissed his Essence, drawing it back within himself. He looked down at Earn’s corpse, barely able to contain the disgust in his soul. When it had come to Nimea, his Karma had warned him that she wasn’t his to kill, and that it wasn’t his role to be the judge, jury, and executioner.

Either it hadn’t warned him off this time, or his emotions had been so strong that he’d completely dismissed the warning. Chance wasn’t sure which, and he found that he didn’t care. There was no universe that would have been made better by leaving the creature before him alive.

Chance heard Jie shift behind him and turned as he stepped out of the room. Jie stared down at Earn in disbelief, then slowly raised his gaze to Chance.

“I… probably shouldn’t have done that,” Chance admitted. “I can see the actions of men, and he was unworthy of the air he breathed. I’m not sure if it was my place to kill him, but I did it anyway.”

Jie spat on Earn’s corpse.

I take it Jie isn’t all that torn up about this, then.

“You are stronger than I had thought,” Jie said, grabbing Chance by the arm. “But we must move quickly. Master Drayan will have almost certainly heard that, and he is a powerful cultivator. You must depart immediately.”

Jie dragged Chance down the hall and up to a small door. He worked it open, then pulled Chance inside a much smaller, thinner hallway. It was much darker than the rest of the house, with only a few scattered, dirty windows for light.

“This is a pathway for the servants,” Jie said, closing the door behind them. “It will take you into the kitchen, and you should be able to escape through the back of the house.”

“Wait. Where are all the others?” Chance asked. “The people that the Brackern sect is controlling.”

“Forget about us,” Jie snapped, dragging Chance deeper into the dimly lit hall. “If Quinn can escape, then I would consider this a good outcome. Earn was far from the strongest fighter the Brackern sect has, and they will be on guard now. You will not be able to do that again.”

They hurried down a winding stairwell and continued through another path, arriving at a door. Jie pressed his ear to it, then quickly pulled it open and ushered Chance out into a hot, smoke filled kitchen.

Nobody even gave them a second glance as they strode through it and toward a door in the back of the room.

“I don’t think Quinn will leave without you,” Chance said. “And I’m not leaving anyone here. This is wrong.”

“Wrong or right do not matter. Quinn will survive,” Jie said, grabbing the door and pulling it open. He pushed Chance out into an alleyway – one on the other side of the building that Quinn had brought him to, if Chance recalled its layout correctly – and gestured urgently. “Leave. If you have an army, then bring them. One cultivator will not be able to stop an entire sect. Please give Quinn my best wishes and ensure that she never returns here.”

Chance opened his mouth to refuse and urge Jie to change his mind, but his foot caught on a protruding brick. He stumbled, taking several quick steps to right himself, and a sword plummeted from the sky, slamming into the ground where he’d been standing.

Golden mist erupted around Chance and he shoved Jie behind him as a man dropped from the second floor of the house, slamming to the alleyway with enough force to crack the stone beneath him.

His bright yellow and white robes hugged his heavily muscled body, and his head was shaved perfectly smooth. The man grabbed the sword, sliding it free from the ground as he bared his teeth in a furious, hungry smile.

“I had thought this foolish behavior had already been beaten out of you, Jie.”

“Master Drayan,” Jie said, his words stiff with terror.

“Ah,” Chance said, flexing his fingers. His urumi leapt into his hand, humming faintly with energy as he watched Drayan. “So you’re Drayan. I was just about to go looking for you. Lucky me.”