~~~

Once one reaches the Heaven Realm, the earth will no longer be capable of holding them down. They will be free to soar through skies like eagles and look down on the world below. This is something known by all, but few are those who reach those lofty heights. For most, the Heaven Realm will remain a distant dream. Their path to eternity will stop at the Nascent Realm, the third realm of cultivation.

The Heaven Realm is the seventh realm of cultivation.

It is telling that in the Bright Phantasm Sect, one of the most powerful factions within the Night Forest Nation, the strongest person is only in the Earth Realm, the sixth realm of cultivation. Even in the powerful Sects of the Crimson Cloud Empire, such as the Red Sky Pavilion and the Golden Fist Sect, those in the Heaven Realm stand above the rest. They are the ones who go on to become Elders and Branch Masters. It took Lu Mei’s father nearly two centuries to reach that level.

A pity. Had her father reached that level two years before she was born instead of two years after, he might have actually been her father.

Regardless, because reaching the Heaven Realm is such a tall order and flight such a useful skill, people have been creating alternate paths to the skies since the dawn of time. Through wind. Through fire. Even through blood. What is achieved through growing closer to eternity can surely be replicated with the right combination of ingenuity and power. It is with that mentality that vehicles such as the Eternal Flame Clan’s flying wagons were created.

The same can be said of Lu Mei’s flying carpet.

Lu Mei soars high above the Night Forest, already nearing the clouds. The air is cold and the oxygen low, yet Lu Mei is not bothered by either. She is a cultivator in the Spirit Realm. Even conditions ten times worse than this will not make her complain.

The dozens of blue fireballs chasing after her, however, are not so easily ignored.

Left.

Up.

Right.

Down.

No matter where Lu Mei goes or how much she speeds up, the flames keep chasing after her with dogged determination. Already she has tried to snuff them out with blasts of wind and even tried to alter their trajectory so they would crash into each other. However, her efforts have been for naught. The flames always pass right through her wind as though it isn’t there. Were it not for the Qi Lu Mei feels coming from them, she’d almost believe those flames were mere illusions.

It is annoying to admit it, but her compatibility with this technique may be the worst out of their group.

The thought makes a rueful smile appear on Lu Mei’s face. This is not good. Not good at all. Right now, the only thing she can do is dodge, but for how much longer? Contrary to what many believe, her carpet does not actually fly on its own. Rather, Lu Mei needs to keep channeling Wind Qi into it. Otherwise, it won’t function.

Items like it are not uncommon in the Red Sky Pavilion. There are many skilled Wind users there who practice by making such things. They can even serve as training aids and will usually fetch a good price when sold to outsiders. Of course, once a skilled Wind user hits the True Realm, their technique will most likely be good enough to render most external aids meaningless. A pity they’ll almost certainly lose the ability to fly upon hitting the Earth Realm.

Lu Mei imagines it must be quite irritating for those who reach the Earth Realm and end up never being able to get past it. However, she has no intention of finding out how that feels like. She did not join the Eternal Flame Clan to settle for the Earth Realm.

She most certainly did not join it to die in some backwater country.

A quick glance to the forest below shows her Qing Jin is busy with his own battle. At least, she assumes he is the reason why all the shades are suddenly concentrated in one area of the forest. The sight of so many shades crawling down there is enough to make her wish they had brought at least one of the Elders, but such a thing simply couldn’t be done. It is not just because they need them to keep the barrier around the city stable. No, the Elders of the Bright Phantasm Sect are not so weak they wouldn’t have been able to spare one among their number to help out had Feng Zhi asked.

However, such a thing would have made the Eternal Flame Clan lose face.

That is the real reason why Feng Zhi decided to have all the Elders help out with the barrier. It is not because it is necessary or even because they are still not sure who they can trust. Rather, it is because this matter must be settled by the Eternal Flame Clan and no one else. It is one thing to have some help from disciples placed under their command. However, other than Feng Zhi, the Elders of the Bright Phantasm Sect are all in higher cultivation realms than them.

At that point, it is no longer cooperation.

Lu Mei understands this, yet as the fireballs keep growing closer to her, she cannot help but wish it were not so. There is fire above her, fire below here, and fire at her sides. The flames are slowly but surely cutting off her escape routes. Almost as if—

Her mind comes to a halt.

Instinct takes over as her carpet dives for the ground. More fireballs manage to intercept her, but instead of dodging, Lu Mei breaks right through. She raises her arms to protect her face just as five fireballs hit her. It stings, but only that.

Lu Mei keeps falling.

No, not falling. She accelerates, pushing as much Wind Qi into her carpet as it can handle, going at several times the speed of sound. Dozens of flames chase after her like hungry beasts.

Her landing is as soft as can be.

Wind wraps around her body and shoots towards the ground just before she hits it. It is far from subtle, but the blast of wind provides the necessary counterthrust to slow her descent. Several leaves are torn from their trees. A massive cloud of dirt rises up over the area.

The dirt, she blows away in an instant. Not a speck of dust gets on her clothes. The leaves, however, stay floating all around her. As the flames get closer to her, Lu Mei uses wind to place the leaves in their path.

This time, the flames do not pass through.

The leaves are left blackened and charred, but they do their job. Each fireball is perfectly stopped. The sight is enough to draw a smile across Lu Mei’s face. How could she have been so foolish? She had been looking at it all wrong.

“Oh, my. Oh, my. It seems I have been made quite a fool,” Lu Mei says, her Qi wrapping around hundreds of leaves and making them swirl around her even as more and more orbs of blue flame appear all around.

“Allow me to return the favor.”

~~~

Punch. Explosion.

Punch. Explosion.

Punch. Explosion.

Again and again, the pattern repeats itself. Bei Hong punches his opponent, and his opponent explodes on him. Some would find it worrying. Bei Hong finds it relaxing, so much the thought of changing his approach in the slightest does not once enter his mind. The idea of losing does not even occur to him. Bei Hong keeps punching his foe even as he keeps exploding on his face every time he does so.

"How foolish can one man possibly be?"

His opponent cackles as he keeps attacking. He's dressed in the same dark robes as the other shades, the only exception being his arms, which are uncovered. His Qi is on the Third Level of the Spirit Realm. The strength and the speed of his attacks more than confirm this. However, it means little. By Bei Hong's standards, this shade is not particularly skilled. Even if he were one or two levels higher, Bei Hong doubts he'd have any problems.

The issue is he keeps exploding.

Well, it is not just that. He explodes and doesn't stay exploded. While Bei Hong's left to wear the marks of every explosion, this thing emerges from them rejuvenated. Even his clothes are reconstructed.

Cracked ribs. A broken neck. A dislocated shoulder.

All are healed in the aftermath of the explosion.

"Is this what the Eternal Flame Clan is full of? Crazed dogs who only know how to attack?" The shade cackles. Bei Hong preferred it when they didn't talk. "To think that fool Wong Shou agonized over how to make a good impression on you! How pathetic can a person be!?"

For the first time in the fight, Bei Hong's expression changes.

"Are you not a creation of the Wong heir?"

He has to be. The voice is the same, and, more crucially, his Qi is the same. This shade is fighting with Wong Shou's Qi, just like the one Qing Jin fought in the forest.

"I wonder? Does that even matter?"

"No," Bei Hong replies honestly. Such things are for people like Feng Zhi to ponder about. "Not really."

His job is to defeat the enemy.

"Exactly!" His foe throws himself at him. Bei Hong expertly blocks the first hit, then punches right through the shade's torso with an arm coated in gold. Predictably, the shade then explodes on his face and laughs at him. "There is no need for you to worry about anything! It will all be over soon."

"No." Bei Hong spits to the side. "It won't."

"You fight still?" The shade laughs, skipping away from him. "Look at yourself. Even your fine robes are in tatters!"

He is not wrong. The robes he had received from the Eternal Flame Clan are in the process of coming apart. To be honest, Bei Hong’s surprised they have managed to withstand so many explosions already.

“It is clear you cannot win. Why not make things easier for yourself?”

Bei Hong cocks his head to the side. “Easier?”

“Surrender!” The shade spreads his arms wide. Though Bei Hong cannot see his face, he imagines there is a grin there. “Think about it. There is no need to care about anything here. This conflict has nothing to do with you. Why care about Wong Shou? Why care about the Bright Phantasm Sect? Why care about this tiny country? Why care about anything at all? There is no need for it, is there? This doesn’t matter. Why not surrender and walk away? There is no reason to do anything, so why bother?”

Surrender?

It is not the first time someone has told him to do so. It happened plenty of times in the Golden Fist Sect. A clever hawk hides his talons or some other stuff like that. Bei Duyi was always saying things like that. Be prudent. Be cautious. Be smart. Pick your battles carefully. Do not take unnecessary risks.

Bei Hong has never once cared for such things.

A cultivator is forged through adversity.

“You are the type that likes the sound of their own voice, aren’t you?” Bei Hong cracks his knuckles. “Still, you are not wrong. I don’t care about this city. I don’t care about this Sect, and I only half-care about that ass Feng Zhi. You’re right in that much. However, you’re making two mistakes.”

“Oh? What are they?”

“First of all, I may not care about all that stuff, but I do care about losing.”

Bei Hong’s Qi flares up. The gold coating his arms spreads over his entire body and face.

[Goldforged Body]

“Your second mistake… is thinking you’re stronger than me!” Bei Hong roars. “You think trash like you can defeat me? Try it then! Come and extinguish yourself against me!”

~~~

“Young Master, we regret to inform you that-”

“Silence.”

“Still trying, cousin? Are you not embarrassed? I would be.”

“You’re nowhere near annoying enough to be the real thing.”

“I see. So this is the extent of your—”

“Not interested.”

Pushing a hand through his father’s face is more than a little cathartic. Feng Zhi will not deny that. However, he cannot allow himself to be moved by the illusions. It had been simple at first. They had merely taken the shapes of monsters and other simple obstacles. However, as time went on, the illusions had taken a more… personal nature.

It cannot be that his mind is being breached. Feng Zhi would have felt a violation of that level by now. Instead, Feng Zhi suspects there is an element of self-suggestion at play. His mind is not being invaded, but rather the mist is interacting with his Qi in ways that let his mind affect the shape of the illusions. Whereas before, it had felt like the mist was working naturally, this feels more like a focused attack.

It must mean he is fairly close to whoever is behind this.

Feng Zhi’s steps echo across the tower as he makes his way through his first love, his most embarrassing secret, his mother, his father once more, his uncle, and many, many iterations of his cousin. The latter is not the least bit surprising as his cousin is the most annoying person alive. It is natural for his mind to conjure him. In fact, he’s deliberately doing so. If these illusions are being summoned by his mind, then controlling what they show is within his capabilities. As long as he can keep the illusions focused on harmless things, he’ll be able to reach the top within mo-

“Hello.”

-ments.

“Are you..”

He stands in front of Feng Zhi, small and covered in blood. Tears stream down his eyes. His voice, so pained, so weak and frail. It is inevitable. It is what he knows will happen. It is why-

“Are you my bro-”

“Enough!”

Everything is fire.

It burns like the sun, turning the mist to nothing. Even the floor beneath him is destroyed, reduced to nothing more than spare atoms. Feng Zhi is left floating in the air, propelled by his own flames.

“Lord Feng Zhi, I have been waiting for you!”

Wong Shou.

Wong Shou stands in front of him with a smile on his face. As if he had done nothing wrong. As if he wasn’t aware of the sacrilege he’d just committed. As if Feng Zhi hadn’t felt the foul stench of his Qi behind that last illusion.

“Now that you are here, we can finally deal with this problem. I have every confidence that together we shall prevail against this threat.”

“I…” Feng Zhi stops. He has to, for his words suddenly do not sound like they belong to either human or beast. They are the roar of fire, his rage a towering inferno that will not be contained.

The line has been crossed.

“I am going to kill you.”

~~~