Jìng

Odd how things change. To go from one mercilessly taught to one who now teaches. Though he never raised his stick like she used to do it.

The musty scent of sweat and exertion hung heavy in the cavernous training hall, an amalgam of wood smoke and polished bamboo. Sunlight filtered through the latticed screens in stark rays, casting bars of brilliant white across the woven mats where Jìng assumed a defensive kata stance.

Each pivot of his heel sent up a whisper of dust motes swirling in those hazy beams. Nostrils flaring, he inhaled the familiar, grounding aromas—the subtle tang of lacquer, the earthy musk of the incense smoldering in its alcoved braziers.

This was his sanctum, his realm. These halls had borne witness to the relentless forging of his mind, body and spirit into an inviolable bulwark against—

"What kind of posture is that?" The rebuke lashed out like a steel whip, that imperious alto shattering Jìng's reverie. "Are you truly the Emperor's son?"

Wen Ya's disparaging words found their mark, sinking thorned barbs into his consciousness as she materialized from the shadows beyond the ring of torchlight. Her jade-carved tresses were twisted into an elaborate coil, cinched by ornate combs that glinted like fangs framing her disdainful expression. One delicately manicured hand gripped the rattan discipline rod, fingertips drumming out an ominous cadence against the polished wood.

Jìng's jaw tensed, molars grinding against the tide of emotions that swelled within—loathing, frustration, a simmering resentment that he knew better than to allow purchase. Wen Ya was the Emperor's favored consort; any perceived slight would be repaid a thousandfold. So he straightened, raising his chin in a facade of serene detachment even as her scathing words sliced deeper.

"Is that tears I see?" Her derisive laughter was a razor's caress, each mocking syllable flaying away another strip of his resolve as she prowled forward.

The training rod was ice against his cheek as she tapped out a spiteful rhythm, savoring each flinch, each fracture in his crumbling veneer. Jìng swallowed hard, tasting copper on his tongue where he'd bitten the inside of his cheek. His muscles were taut as sunbaked leather, yearning to lash out, to shatter that hateful smirk into shards of anguish to mirror his own—but he was the Emperor's instrument, and such defiance would only beget torment.

"No, ma'am," he ground out through gritted teeth, sweat prickling beneath the ornate silk robes as Wen Ya's rod struck his shoulder in a stinging reprimand.

"Good." A serpentine smile played across those crimson lips. "Now, we'll do it—”

---

”—Again!” Jìng instructed.

The training yard baked beneath the merciless summer sun, dirt packed hard as stone save for a few tufts of stubborn weeds straining against the unforgiving earth. A low murmur of exertion drifted from the small band of students clustered with swords drawn, beads of perspiration tracing their furrowed brows as they mirrored the fluid movements of their master instructor.

When he reached the end of the row, Jìng pivoted on one booted heel, robes swirling in a kaleidoscope of rich hues like the plumage of his peacock namesake. "Now," he commanded, voice which brooked no argument, "straight posture, shoulders back. Use your sword as the extension of your chi, your life's current."

With the slender branch gripped in one calloused hand, the master rapped out instructions, subtly adjusting each student's form one by one. A furrow creased his brow as he corrected the last young woman's grip, gently but firmly guiding her trembling arms into the proper stance.

"Is it supposed to feel like this?" she panted, jade eyes pleading. "Like my sword arm could drop off?"

One dark brow arched ever so slightly. "Good. That weariness means you are channeling your energy correctly. What did you expect a limb to feel like when you pour all your life's force through it?"

The words hung between them, an unspoken challenge to persevere or falter. Jaw set, the woman straightened her spine, squaring her shoulders against the relentless strain as a bead of sweat trickled down her neck. A small, infinitesimal nod of approval from the inscrutable master was her reward before he turned away, robes whispering against the baked earth.

"Now, we–"

Jìng froze mid-stride, one hand upraised as his head cocked ever so slightly. To the oblivious students it seemed he had merely paused for breath, but those ancient eyes had caught a fleeting shift, a hairline fracture in the world's vibrant essence only a true master could detect.

With a subtle wave, he dismissed the confused pupils. "We'll continue your training later. Rest your arms."

As they departed with murmurs of surprise, Jìng started down the hallway, emerald robes trailing behind him. He extended one palm, summoning four shimmering orbs of verdant light which hung suspended before him. With a few terse words, they pulsed and scattered towards the four winds like phantoms, leaving the master alone amid the dust and echoes of a thousand drills...

Massive spirit forming in the Green District near Jingyang Palace. I’ve got this.

"Guards! Get the Empress and her family somewhere safe, move it!" Jìng's commanding tone brooked no argument as he charged down the hallway, ornate robes billowing out behind him. A gaggle of armored guards snapped into action, casting wary looks in his direction before disappearing deeper into the sprawling palace complex.

No one questioned Jìng's orders - despite his unassuming appearance, everyone knew the raw power coursing through his veins. With a slight smirk, Jìng sent his spirit projections shooting out the open windows like ghostly arrows. Time to take the fight to these uninvited guests.

Jìng burst out onto the front porch, surveying the meticulously tended garden spreading out before him. Servants scrambled for cover, abandoning their gardening tools as Jìng waved them inside to safety with an impatient flick of his wrist. Rolling his shoulders, he leapt from the porch edge in a single fluid motion.

"This better not intrude on my sauna time," he muttered under his breath as his descent slowed to a casual drift, robes swirling around him. With a slight grunt of effort, Jìng willed his chi into physical form, emerald tendrils coalescing into a massive archer's bow easily twice his height. He nocked a blazing arrow, senses straining against the eerie silence now blanketing the garden.

Something was out there, pressing in all around them with ill intent. Jìng's grip tightened on his spirit weapon, a muscle twitching in his jaw. His chi pulsed with barely contained power, thrumming like a plucked string as he prepared for battle against whatever malevolent force dared to breach the palace's mystic defenses.

This was so not how he'd planned on spending his afternoon. With a put-upon sigh, Jìng settled into a ready stance, arrow knocked as flower petals swirled in an unseen breeze. Just another day saving the kingdom's backside...again.

Then, the ground split apart with a thunderous crack that shook the very earth. Jìng felt his teeth gritting as the fissure rapidly widened, utterly disregarding the reverence and care devoted to cultivating these gardens. One gargantuan insectoid leg punched through first, chitin-plated and easily as thick around as a redwood trunk. Then another appendage, and another, each one larger and more grotesquely alien than the last.

Until finally, the entire monstrosity emerged.

A deafening, guttural roar escaped the massive spirit centipede as it skittered fully into the light. Its bloated, segmented body undulated with each ponderous movement, shiny black carapace gleaming like obsidian. Beady red eyes burned with insatiable hunger as its giant mandibles clacked and dripped thick globules of viscous drool that sizzled upon hitting the ground. When it reared up on its rear portion, the creature easily towered ten stories high, blotting out the sun.

Gardens and pavilions were reduced to splinters as the centipede's bulk carelessly crushed everything in its wake. Entire trees were uprooted as its gigantic legs gouged deep furrows in the manicured landscape. Priceless pottery shattered, ponds were drained in an instant, and meticulously arranged rock gardens were annihilated - leaving only a path of obliterated rubble.

"You're not getting past!" Jìng snarled, the silk robes of the Imperial Master billowing as he deftly backflipped away from one stomping appendage.

With a wave of his hand, a quiver of gleaming arrows materialized in thin air, glowing faintly with harnessed chi. They rapidly soared towards the centipede in a blazing torrent, burying themselves deep into its armored carapace. Inky black ichor oozed from the wounds, but the beast didn't even flinch.

Instead, it simply slammed its gigantic head down with enough force to crater the ground. Jìng pivoted away just as those snapping mandibles crushed the space he'd previously occupied, chunks of stone and dirt pelting his face. As the centipede reared back, he dismissed the arrows with another gesture, this time conjuring forth a pair of twin swords imbued with swirling chi energy.

Their emerald blades hummed hungrily as Jìng surged forward, a blur of motion too fast for the naked eye to follow. He leapt high, flipping over the centipede's snapping jaws with ease before landing squarely upon its ridged back. Sprinting along its length, he dragged both swords in tandem - carving parallel trenches through the armored plates as foul ichor geysered upwards.

The centipede convulsed in agony, massive frame twisting and slamming Jìng backwards. But the Imperial Master nimbly regained his footing, skidding across the rubble-strewn ground in a low crouch as he deftly avoided each stomping leg.

Why wasn't he doing more damage? His strikes should have been potent enough to sever those appendages, or at least incapacitate the beast. Yet besides the relentless bleeding, it showed no signs of slowing. Those beady red eyes simply burned with more ferocious hatred as it zeroed in on its prey once more.

A blur of crimson landed in a crouch beside him, the impact cratering the earth. Master Bull straightened, that infuriating smirk plastered across his brutish features as he slung his immense blade over his shoulder.

"I said I got this." Jing snapped, resisting the urge to strike the boor himself.

“Couldn’t let you have all the fun, this one actually looks tough.” Master Bull feral grin glints. “Fun.”

Yellow robes billowed gracefully as Master Dolphin descended beside them, features unreadable beneath his bamboo hat. An amused chuckle escaped him. "You don't look like you got it." He nodded towards the centipede, entirely unscathed despite Jìng's relentless barrage. "Barely a mark."

The sting of humiliation burned Jìng's ears. He opened his mouth for a retort, but the arrival of Master Dove stilled his words. The eldest of them all landed with a subtle flicker of blue smoke, exuding an aura of serene command. A single evaluating glance was all it took to cow Jìng back into focus, begrudgingly refastening the strands of his topknot.

"We aren't here to fight each other." Master Dove's melodic voice brooked no argument, though Master Dolphin couldn't resist a final gibe.

"Wrong enemy."

Despite their mockery, Jìng knew they understood the gravity of the situation. This was no mere pest to be dispatched - he could see it in the guarded focus they attempted to mask. The tension coiled within Master Owl's posture, the measured restraint in Bull's grip upon his blade, the controlled ebb of Dolphin's energy...they all felt it.

Dove's wizened eyes studied the thrashing behemoth as he addressed them. "Let's get this over with."

An unspoken acknowledgment rippled through them all. Jìng felt the weight of his masters' combined power surround him, a bulwark against the unholy dread radiating from that...thing. He allowed his spiritual energy to rise, focusing his inner eye upon the centipede.

There would be no more games, no more arrogant boasts or flippant witticisms. This was what they had trained for their entire lives - to face the unfaceable and defend the innocent from that which could not be reasoned with. Jìng took a steadying breath, the familiar mantra of focus calming his mind. Kill the spirit. Figure out how it manifested here. It couldn’t be because of his own failure?

Can it?

With a resounding bellow, the centipede reared its segmented bulk, crimson light searing from every ridge and crevice. Jìng's muscles tensed, sinking into an offensive stance as his comrades moved in unison around him. He could feel their collective energy rising, weaving together in an unbreakable bulwark.

The abomination surged forward, mandibles gnashing with a sound like screeching metal. Jìng's eyes hardened to flint. Here it came.

Master Bull unleashed a ferocious roar. His massive greatsword swung in a blinding crimson arc, cleaving deep into the centipede's armored carapace. A shrill, bone-shaking screech erupted from the colossal vermillion beast as ichor sprayed from the grievous wound. Yet even as the metallic reek of its foul, viscous blood filled the air, the centipede's segmented body began knitting itself back together with unnatural swiftness.

Cursing under his breath, Master Bull leapt back just as a barrage of whip-like legs slammed into the earth where he'd been standing. He could feel the tremors reverberating through his very bones as the thrashing appendages kicked up clouds of loamy soil. Pivoting on one heel, the grizzled swordsman swung his blade in a blistering whirlwind, deflecting the ceaseless blows as he fought to keep the centipede at bay.

In the mayhem, Master Owl's lithe form materialized in a flicker of shadow. With a sweeping gesture, a murky violet miasma billowed forth from his cupped palms to engulf the centipede's thrashing bulk. The beast recoiled, its multitudinous eyes blinking in disorientation as the soporific vapors seeped into its senses. An opening - Master Dolphin seized the moment, vaulting overhead with a whirling flourish of his iron nunchucks. He landed in a low crouch atop the centipede's pulsating crest, the weighted chains whirring as he spun them into blinding arcs of glinting steel.

Though beset on all sides by the trio's onslaught, the centipede's unrelenting regenerative powers sparked anew. Severed limbs withered and regrew with horrific alacrity, replacing those hacked away in sprays of gore. Its wounds scabbed over, flesh knitting back together in puckered welds that spread like grotesque blooms across its exoskeletal hide.

"It's regenerating!" Master Bull bellowed over the din, sidestepping a lashing fusillade of quills. He grunted as one punched deep into his thigh, gritting his teeth against the burning agony lancing up his leg. "What the hell are we supposed to do with that?"

From the periphery where he observed the fray with infuriatingly serene detachment, Master Dove's gravelly voice rang out with measured calm. "You should know what to do." His milky eyes remained shuttered, seemingly impervious to the chaos swirling around him. "Find out why it is regenerating–-"

The centipede surged with renewed vigor, its countless legs undulating in a rippling, arrhythmic cadence as it scrambled to dislodge Master Dolphin. With a bestial roar, one barbed foreclaw lashed out, catching the agile warrior squarely in the shirt barely dodging a fatal mark. He went soaring in a graceless pirouette, nunchucks clattering uselessly to the ground as he slammed into a cluster of dense shrubbery.

"Damn it, old man!" Master Bull spat a crimson gobbet, whirling on Master Dove with brows knitted in exasperation. His chest heaved with each ragged exhalation as he glowered at the unflustered elder. "Why does everything have to be a learning lesson to you?!"

Heedless of the swordsman's rancor, Master Dolphin pulled himself upright with a roguish grin, leaves and twigs adorning his rumpled robes. "Why do you ask the same questions over and over again?" he taunted with a sidelong smirk.

With a feral growl, Master Bull hefted his blade and charged back into the fray.

Jìng furrowed his eyebrows, mind working a mile a minute until it clicked.

Master Dove's composed countenance remained undisturbed, a warm smile playing at the corners of his wizened features. With a subtle nod, he acknowledged that the young prodigy had sensed the same weakness within the rampaging beast.

Closing his eyes, Jìng inhaled deeply and centered himself. His body began to flow through the familiar motions - the sacred choreography of the legendary Prince Qin's Cavalry form ingrained into his very being. Slender arms sliced through the air in broad, sweeping arcs, conjuring an invisible blade at the end of each strike. The ritualistic movements helped focus his chi, drawing the mystical energies inward until they swirled in a maelstrom behind his eyes.

When emerald irises snapped open, the aberration's vulnerability stood out in stark relief - a pulsating, malignant growth embedded in the centipede's armored underbelly. The source of its unholy regeneration.

"Master Dolphin, grab it by the feelers and pull it onto its side!" Jìng's voice rang with authority. "Master Bull, aim for the heart!"

With a mighty bellow, the hulking figure of Master Dolphin surged forward, his tree-trunk arms straining with corded muscle as he seized the centipede's thrashing antennae in a vice-grip. Bracing his stance, the martial titan harnessed his preternatural strength to wrench the entire grotesque form sideways - exposing the centipede's vulnerability.

The beast screeched in fury, hundreds of jagged legs scrabbling futilely as Master Owl's miasmic toxins seeped into its compound eyes - sapping its raging resistance. Yet still the centipede bucked and writhed in Master Dolphin's grip, intent on righting itself.

That's when Master Bull stepped into the fray, crimson chi smoldering around his legendary blade like smoke from a raging bonfire. With each passing second, the swirling energies intensified - focusing into an inextinguishable inferno as the seasoned warrior silently gathered his power, his entire being a consummate vessel of discipline and focus–

SKRRRK!

At last, with a thunderous war cry that reverberated through the decimated gardens, Bull's sword arced in a blinding streak of scarlet - the pent-up forces of his chi detonating in a cataclysmic eruption towards the centipede's throbbing black heart!

The deafening scream of the giant centipede spirit echoed through the ornate palace halls as Master Bull drove his sword deep into the beast's grotesque heart. Foul black ichor sprayed from the gaping wound, sizzling against the polished marble floors. With a sickening crunch of exoskeleton, the centipede's armored body convulsed in its final agonizing death throes.

Jìng watched with narrowed crimson eyes as one of the creature's countless thrashing legs knocked over a nearby pillar with thunderous force. He could feel the very foundation trembling beneath his feet with each earth-shaking lurch of the centipede's spasming bulk. Tendrils of his silver hair whipped across his sweat-slicked face as he tensed, coiled like a venomous serpent ready to strike at any moment.

A rapid fluttering heartbeat pierced his concentration, its frantic pounding deafening amidst the chaos. Jìng's gaze snapped towards one of the servant alcoves lining the corridor - a lone figure huddled beneath the protective arch, mere inches from where the centipede's lower half continued to spasm and flail.

A curse spilled from his lips as he surged forward without a second thought. His boots pounded against the marble as he raced towards the cornered servant, chi already gathering in his upraised palms with a faint crimson glow. Skidding to a halt, he dropped to one knee and thrust his hands out, gritting his teeth as he caught the full brunt of the centipede's weight against his barrier.

Muscles straining, tendons standing out in taut relief against his neck, Jìng felt a firm grip on his shoulder - the familiar presence of Master Dove lending her strength to bolster his own. Together they held the immense bulk at bay just long enough to haul the terrified servant out from beneath the arch by the scruff of their robes.

With a grunt of exertion, Jìng and Dove stepped back, sweat beading their brows as the centipede's carcass finally crashed to the floor in a sickening crunch of chitin. The stench of death and burnt ozone hung thick in the air as the dust slowly settled around them.

Chest heaving, Jìng smoothed back his tousled silver locks with one hand, the very picture of composure despite the violent scene. Not a single hair seemed out of place as he straightened his robes, mint green eyes boring into the servant before him.

"Are you injured?" He asked with a hint of irritation, not towards the servant, but towards the masters for even considering that Jìng was weak. They better not tell Master Wen about this.

In the periphery of his vision, Jìng could see the remaining four masters gathering in hushed conference. Their grave expressions and furtive glances spoke volumes of their shared trepidation. How had such a powerful spirit managed to breach the sacred palace grounds that Jìng, the strongest of the five, protected? The implications were...troubling, to say the least.

A muscle ticked in Jìng's jaw as his gaze flickered briefly towards the huddle of murmuring masters. Clearly he would need to reinforce the defensive wards around the palace - and soon, before any other malicious forces sought to take advantage of such an obvious vulnerability.