Blood and Qi: A Vampire Xianxia LitRPG

John’s heart beats much faster. He wonders if his mind healed wrong and he is now insane. He just stares at the words, focusing his will on his mind, trying to force himself back to sanity.

Munashi says, “Honored elder, I hear your heart. Is it the words?”

John feels much relief. “You see them too?”

Munashi grunts. “I do. You asked me if I knew what was happening earlier, and gave an answer far different than what was explained to us. Did you not hear the explanation, or did you not pay attention? I missed some myself, or failed to understand what was being said.”

John, confused, says, “I received no explanation. I awoke doing exercises. My mind and body were healed. I was under a strange compulsion and couldn’t control my actions. I heard only a distant whisper I couldn’t understand. When I was in the field where our brothers and sisters were all killed, I heard demons talking about this world having only a short time left, and Peerless, and us all dying or becoming slaves. Then I was crushed, and this building grew around me. You know the rest.”

The non-spirit whispers in John’s ear, “You’re so weird. But I like it!”

Munashi says. “Honored elder, I will tell you what I can, but there is information much more important than the rest. More important than anything. I told you before, but you must have missed it. But first, you were introducing me to the spirit, yes?”

John says, “I was, and I look forward to your news. Mistress, I didn’t get your name. I go by John now; my friend here goes by Munashi.”

The feminine voice, still whispering, says, “Names have power and I won’t give mine. And please don’t call me mistress. It means something way different now than what it used to mean. Something gross!”

“What should I call you then?”

“What do you want to call me?”

"Your name, mostly.”

A tinkling laughter hits John’s ear, “You’re funny! You can name me anything.”

John thinks for a moment and asks, “Amber?”

Amber laughs again, “I like it!”

Louder, John says, “Munashi, our other companion is Amber. She is not a spirit. Not really. And definitely not a he.”

Laughter tinkles again in John’s ear. Munashi says, “Yes. Please rest, Miss Amber.”

Both John and Munashi wait for a response, which never comes. John says, “Amber?”

“Yes?”

“Will you not address Munashi directly?”

“I won’t.”

“Why not. It’s very rude, you know?”

“I don’t want to. I told you he feels hazardous. He thinks of death. Yours? Mine? I can’t tell.”

John knows he is not the smartest man, but he’s been around for a while, and has always been a decent judge of these things. He doesn’t think Munashi means to do harm to him or Amber.

“Sorry, brother. Amber says she doesn’t want to talk to you, and is under the mistaken assumption you think of death and harming us.”

The last thing John was expecting was laughter, which Munashi does much of. “Yes. Honored elder, she is correct! And incorrect too. I told you before, we need not fear the cold-dark. Our souls! They were given back to us! And your religion is wrong, but mine is right! There is no Underworld. We are reborn! Our souls return to this world after we die. They didn’t articulate – human, insect, karma probably decides, it matters not. Even if I return as an insect I must go. My debt is heavy. I taught my people a warrior has no fear of death, but I feared it above all. As soon as I am healed enough I will go. The death I seek is my own. I would be honored if you acted as my second. We are not easy to kill, and I could use the help.”

Amber whispers, “My goodness! He’s lost his mind.”

Up to this point John has stared at the calming fire of a torch, while occasionally moving his eyeballs around to see if he could spot Amber. His head has been fixed in position as it heals. John tests his neck, and it is good enough to move a little. He moves it enough to look at Munashi

The man is wearing loose grey clothing, a large orange sash around his waist, and large white shoes. John can’t really see Munashi’s face as he is perpendicular to John, but John can see two hilts sticking up on Munashi’s left side.

And a soul! Munashi has a soul. Far smaller and more tattered than any John has ever seen, and far more dark spots smatter the grey than usual, and hardly any white at all, and there is no red now. But a soul!

John exclaims in much excitement, “Great gods below! I see it! It’s true! Do I have mine back? Can you see it?”

Munashi laughs. “I saw your soul when we were outside, on the ground. It’s rough as a century-old worn-out garment, and very, very little – but there. Do not worry, honored elder, I know what you think, and I am with you. Honor demands no less. No cold-dark.

“And there are no gods below. There is one great one in Heaven, and only buddhas can join Him there once they ascend high enough and attain enlightenment. So, we were somewhat right again. We were right about reincarnation, and energy centers, and energy channels too.

“It’s just like we saw when we got the choice. I forgot about it, really. I remember the good place, but you had to be a woman to get there. The struggle, trying to join with the powerful thing. They call it…I forget. I’m not explaining well. They told us a lot. The cold-dark is all that matters. Can you believe it?”

John smiles and enthusiastically says, “I can’t. It seems like a dream. But the rest of it, man, tell me. You’ve made some large claims and I’d like them explained. I still don’t know what’s going on. I’m more confused now than when we got here.”

Munashi sighs, “Why? None of that matters. Our souls are back. We can finally end this farce.”

John understands where Munashi is coming from. Such long life is more of a curse than a blessing. Ahn would often wonder if the cold-dark would be much worse than enduring another century. “Brother, there are ends, and there are ends. Our world is invaded. You say cowards now run everything; don’t join their ranks. Show them how to live!

“Fight by my side. Die as a man should – in glorious battle, being fell and tall, doing deeds so grand they will be sung of for all eternity. The demon-generals said we are weak and soft and have no chest. We’ll show them otherwise, and drain them of vital essence, and piss on their corpses.”

A long silence reigns over the antechamber. Munashi breaks it. “You mistake my intentions. Fighting is easy for me. I live for the battle; none would say otherwise. The only thing that can unman me is fear of the cold-dark. Only a maniac with a broken mind wouldn’t fear it, and do all to avoid it. But that fear is now gone.

“And though it be futile, if I could’ve, I would‘ve attacked the two ascended that crushed us. If I stood before the combined army of demons and dark ones and all the ascended, I would not balk, and I would spit at them, and draw sword and charge.

“The little honor I have left calls for my death immediately. It demands it. I could not live the beliefs I espoused. It is the only way I can save a little face and win back some honor. It must be done. I thought it would be the same for you, but we are of a different mind. I hope you second me, and if not, bear witness, but you will not stop me.”

John doesn’t understand Munashi’s mind, but respects the man’s conviction. His reply is, “The matter is settled then, brother. It saddens me though, since I’ve only just met you and enjoy your company.

“But I beg a favor – let us fight and have your end in that way. Though you say my beliefs are wrong it is always better to be safe than sorry. Everyone knows demons lie, and when I awaken in the Underworld, I want you by my side and not opposed to me. You must die in battle. Please, for my peace of mind if nothing else.”

Amber, whispering again, tells John, “You guys are both crazy.”

Munashi gives a loud laugh, “Ha! You think you have the juice? Did I not survive the same attack you did? Our wounds were similar. Though I’ve never healed so quickly from such injuries. I must have you to thank for this, Miss Amber? But your victory is no sure thing, honored elder. You forget, the essence isn’t as potent after five or so centuries. The amount of strength and speed and resilience it gives takes more and more essence and wanes, and I am the greatest swordsman that has ever lived.”

John smiles, “I’m pretty good with a sword myself, and you have the two with you. I’ll take the short one. When I’m done healing, I’ll have little more than half essence. I will not use it and will save it for these dark ones the words in my eyes spoke of. Feel free to use as much of yours as needed to give me what little challenge you can, and I’ll take the rest from you after.”

Munashi grunts. “Ha! Yes. I shall. And once my sword drinks of your blood I will take my own life and go to the Wheel with my thirst satiated. I am not yet healed enough, so let us speak of other matters before I take your life.”

Amber says, no longer whispering, “Goodness! This is the dumbest conversation I’ve ever heard! What is wrong with you two? Please don’t do this! Please don’t be so stupid. Let’s just talk about this for a minute. Yeah, let’s do that! Let’s all take some deep breaths and relax and maybe think about how crazy the things you guys are saying are. Whaddaya say, guys?”

Munashi laughs. “Thank you for speaking loud enough for me to hear, Miss Amber. I’ve had centuries and centuries to think on this. My path is certain. I have no choice.”

Amber makes a frustrated noise. “What if you win and then kill yourself. I’ll be alone. Can’t you guys wait until after this Tribulation? Please?”

Munashi, with his softest voice yet, says, “I’m sorry, Miss Amber, but this can’t wait. It must be done.”

John wants to tell her Munashi stands no chance, but holds his tongue. John can’t really see Munashi’s face, but he can see enough to notice the man’s lip movements don’t match up with the words he hears, and he guesses it’s this translation he was told of.

Amber sighs. “Well, that really sucks. This all really sucks. I hafta tell you guys something then. It’s…it’s my fault everyone died. I woke up and tried to make a run for it. I’m good at escaping. No one can ever see me if I don’t want them to. I don’t know how that thing saw me, and I didn’t know they’d kill everyone! Honest! I just wanted to get away. I didn’t know! I’m so, so sorry!”

Munashi grunts. John looks away from the torch and back at the man. Munashi’s neck healed; he now looks around the antechamber. He looks older than John. He looks to be in his twenties or early thirties. His features are sharp, face clean shaved, beige skin, bald head, eyes shaped strangely, with a tortured look to his face.

John says to Amber, “It is not your fault. Munashi said he’d have attacked if he could, and I would’ve too. Fear not, we will have vengeance. I still haven’t had an explanation of what is going on though.”

Munashi says, “Eh, where to start? There was something about this world being blocked from the rest of…everything. Everything else has the Tree of Life. You meditate and perform self-cultivation. You gather energy by breathing in certain ways and move it to your energy centers in your lower belly, heart, and head. Mainly your lower energy center. Energy channels run throughout your body, connecting to organs and energy centers. We knew all this for a long time. How, I don’t know. I did it for years and it didn’t do anything but clear my head and help me gain focus and clarity. You just did it because it was part of the Way.

“Where things get crazy is they say you gather enough energy and compress it and you go up tiers. And going up tiers makes you stronger. We’re all low Wood Seeds. It goes up to…I forget.”

Amber says, “Wood and Seed are different names for the same thing. The bottom of the ladder. It goes Wood, Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and then Empty or Salt. All the way up to Platinum are Mortal ranks. After is Exalted. You can live in space after Empty too! How awesome is that? The other names for the tiers are Seed, Root, Shoot, Sprout, Sapling, Flower, Fruit, and New Soul. Same thing, just different names. And each tier has different ranks – low, mid-low, mid-high, high, and peak.

“And, guess what else? The…”

John interrupts, “Stop! Please. Let me take in what has been said so far. And how did you remember all that?”

Amber laughs out her musical laughter. “You don’t have to remember anything. The NCS. It means…one sec…Nano Control System. That’s the words in your eyes. They said ours are activated because we qualify as Tech 1, since we’ve been to space and stuff. But they said our technology sucks and we don’t really qualify since the way to get to space is with the Tree of Life. Well, anywho, the NCS is a UI and just gives us information and guides us and can help us self-cultivate. There’s a tutorial. I did it when you guys were blabbing and it took a while but when I finished my Tribulation timer didn’t really go down much and you guys were still blabbing about the same thing and…”

John says, “Amber! Slow down, please. Breathe once in a while. I’m having trouble understanding the things you’re saying.”

In a huffed breath Amber says, “You don’t have to. Just do the tutorial. Okay, to start it, you…”

Munashi interrupts this time. “Miss Amber, we should at least tell him what we were told. I had a hard time understanding, and he is much older. Let me try to explain. What television shows and movies are you familiar with?”

“I…I don’t know what those are.”

Munashi grunts. “Okay. That would’ve helped. Just know there is more out there than you could ever have imagined, and we are now part of it. Those things outside weren’t demons. They were ascended beings. There are five Trees, and both of those were on the next one. Aliens, from other worlds. They…”

Amber interrupts. “The Trees are called Mortal, Transcended, Celestial, Divine, and Heavenly. It takes a long time to ascend through a Tree. It’s a big deal too!”

Munashi grunts. John believes grunting means Munashi agrees. The man continues, “Yes. The other key points are they are bringing in creatures for us to battle. Demons were one of them. Dark ones too. I forget the last.”

Amber says “G’athu. All of them are the Forsaken. And we’re the Favored.”

Munashi grunts and continues, “Yes. G’athu. A higher ascendant, at great cost to itself, is placing all mothers with children six and under, and all children twelve and under, for a full year inside…well, we were told inside of itself. That sounds weird saying it, but that’s what we were told. They’ll be safe, and learn the ways of self-cultivation in peace, while everyone left here has a trial by fire.

“The demons and dark ones and g’athu are a plague throughout the universe. If they don’t bring them in for us to fight, we’ll fight each other. And…”

Amber interrupts. “Yeah. Most worlds have ascended beasts to fight, and their cultures grew along with the Tree of Life. This is normal to them. They never didn’t have this. Earth won’t be like a normal world for a long time. If we fight each other to ascend things will get real crazy and all lopsided and all the other species will think we’re savages and hate us. The ascended helping us aren’t bad guys. They put a lot of thought into this.

Barely taking a breath, Amber continues. “And, um, the NCS will tell you about [Stats]. That just means a number representing…um, things like how strong and fast and stuff we are. But it isn’t like in games, like how RPGs are. They tested us. It found out how strong and stuff we are. The NCS doesn’t make us stronger. It helps us get stronger and tracks how strong we are.

“Uh, goodness this is hard to explain. [Strength] isn’t equal for all the races of the universe. Or beasts either. And there are more universes than just this one. And something called realities. And tons of species everywhere. You should’ve seen the guy telling us this. He looked real weird. I think he was a guy.

“He said if his species had ten [Strength] it isn’t the same as a human with ten [Strength]. Or even a bear or frog or whatever. All species have their own, um…one sec. Minimum Energy Unit Increase. It usually always works out that ten is the peak a species can get in a [Stat] without ascending.

“They tested only our [Strength], [Swiftness], and [Conditioning]. Um, that basically just means how strong, fast, and how much stamina you got. How healthy you are too. The NCS will explain better.”

Amber makes an excited noise, “Oh! And guess what? Know how guys are usually stronger than girls? Well, huh! Get this. For species like ours, girls are usually better with spells. Did we tell you that yet? That we can cast spells now? They call them manifestations. We have to at least open our lower energy center before we can cast spells, but I’ll be better at it because guys are stupid and want to kill each other and leave me all alone to fight the dark ones.”

Munashi laughs. “Ha! He didn’t say that. He said the lower energy center of women is in a richer environment with natural and stronger energy flows. And things often balance out for most races and sexes the further up the Tree they ascend, regardless of their specific gifts when starting out. Races meaning species.”

This talk of magic gets John’s full attention, and causes him to be very excited. Since he had first heard of the concept, he has wanted magic for himself. In fact, much of his time with his beloved Lilitu was in search of magic. Though he did see some workings of it, he did not like it, as it involved curses and rituals and sacrificing life. He has always wanted to control fire, and have pillars of flame billow forth from his hands. If what his companions say is true, this dream now seems possible.

Amber and Munashi continue to explain things, but John’s mind constantly returns to fire, and he misses much of what is said. His companions explain the origins of the NCS, and more on {Stats], and many other things, while John imagines his enemies exploding in fire, and how they scream and run, covered in the flames he controls.

John’s body heals, and so does Munashi’s, and it is time for their duel.

Amber cannot talk them out of fighting, but it is her idea to have both men remove as much of their clothes as is decent to do, as she claims she is cold and could use more clothing, and does not want to wear something slashed or more bloodied than their clothes already are.

Amber says John’s comfortable clothings are something called pajamas, and only made to be worn at night and slept in, so he will benefit from different apparel if he wins the fight. Munashi is wearing something called either a sweatsuit or a tracksuit, both of John’s companions giving the outfit a different name.

John has no undergarments so only removes his top, as to not be disrespectful and crude towards Amber. Munashi removes his long-sleeved, hooded grey top, grey pants with elastics at the waist and bottom of the legs, small white sleeveless undershirt called a tanktop, large white shoes, and stockings. Munashi now wears only his large sash around his waist, holding the two swords, both short and long, and a stretchy smallcloth covering his indecent parts.

Munashi gives John the short sword, still sheathed, and instructs John to hold it at his hip and grip the hilt, ready to draw. Amber will count down from three, and as she says one, both shall draw and strike and fight until one lay dead.