~~~

He is Feng Hao. A prodigy among prodigies.

Naturally, someone like him could not have been born from ordinary parents. His father’s strength is unquestionable, and his mother is at the peak of the Heaven Realm. That has never been kept secret from him. Indeed, his father once told him that it hadn’t just been his mother’s beauty that attracted him to her but also her talent in cultivation. It was the union of the two that allowed a talent like Feng Hao to be born into this world.

Experiencing that power is an entirely different matter.

Feng Hao does not see his mother move, nor does he see fire burst from her hand and take the shape of a gleaming saber. All those things happen far too swiftly for his eyes to capture. However, the power behind the gleaming Qi blade? The force that dissipates every single cloud in the sky?The impact that leaves the air itself quaking and pushes him back several yards?

Feng Hao has no trouble feeling those.

Yet, for all his mother’s power, one so great it floods the area and leaves her servants gasping for air, her attack cannot reach Xun Huwen. Feng Hao scrunches his face, trying to comprehend the reality before his eyes. The air around Xun Huwen is distorted in a way he cannot explain. The distortion effortlessly stops his mother’s fiery blade.

“Is this all?” Xun Huwen yells with his arms spread out. The fearsome cultivator meets his mother’s fierce glare with a daring smile. “You disappoint, Lady Ling!”

His mother’s Qi blazes as she pours more power into her weapon. The tiles break and the earth is torn asunder. Her servants are sent flying as his mother struggles to bring her blade down on Xun Huwen’s face to cut him in half.

The distortion does not falter.

His mother’s blade does not advance even a single inch.

“Useless, Lady Ling! Useless!!” Xun Huwen dares take a step forward, taunting his mother with her inability to hit him. “A path to me does not exist!”

Almost lazily, Xun Huwen aims a single finger at his mother.

Feng Hao does not understand what happens next.

It is not simply a matter of it happening too fast for him to follow. No, he knows Xun Huwen fired a technique at his mother. He knows his mother dodged in time, and he knows the entire top half of the mansion was destroyed in the aftermath.

And yet, he does not understand what happened.

When he tries to understand, when he tries to focus and comprehend what his eyes have just beheld...

It hurts.

Like ice piercing through his brain. The mere memory of Xun Huwen’s attack leaves Feng Hao flinching. It tears into his mind and gnaws away at him.

“Enough!” His mother yells. Her voice rings throughout the area, bringing order where chaos reigned. The dust settles. The remains of the mansion stop crumbling. Even Feng Hao’s thoughts are suddenly peaceful.

For the first time, the smile disappears from Xun Huwen’s face.

“Protection?” He says disbelievingly. “Protection?!”

A big guffaw comes out of his mouth, so strongly does Xun Huwen laugh that he has to hold his belly. It even looks like he’s going to trip on his feet.

“After all I have heard of you, your nature is that of a protector?”

“I am a mother. I am a wife,” his mother says, looking more dignified than Feng Hao has ever seen her. A shining beacon against the darkness. “The title of protector is one I will bear proudly.”

“Oh, dear.” Xun Huwen wipes a tear from his eye. “It seems everyone who spoke to me of you was completely wrong, Lady Ling.”

“That only shows how little they are worth.”

Xun Huwen’s smile widens but only for a moment.

“That does not change the facts, Lady Ling. You cannot defeat me. You should understand that now.”

What?

Feng Hao blinks, confused by the confidence in Xun Huwen’s countenance. Those words are neither boast nor mockery, yet Xun Huwen has to be wrong. Certainly, his mother has yet to land a hit on Xun Huwen, but that is only because she has yet to unleash her full power. His mother is a cultivator in the Ninth Level of the Heaven Realm. Xun Huwen is merely in the first level of the same Realm. The difference between them should be that of Heaven and Earth.

So why doesn’t his mother rebuke Xun Huwen?

Why is her beautiful face marred by worry?

“You may be standing at a higher level of cultivation, but there is a clear difference in how far along we are on our respective paths.”

There is a deeper meaning to those words, a higher mystery Feng Hao has not yet been introduced to. However, there is no time to ponder that. His mother goes on the offensive once more. A second blade of a fire, one so hot it burns white, appears on her hand as she dashes up to Xun Huwen.

The fiery blade slashes against the distortion. Dark spots appear in the air as the distortion quakes with every strike.

“Your skillset is offensive. Your nature is defensive,” Xun Huwen yells. The distortion surrounding him lashes out and grows, forcing his mother to back away. “As long as that contradiction is in place, you cannot defeat me!”

“There is no contradiction!” His mother raises a single hand up. Multiple lights shine in the sky, forcing Feng Hao to look up. Dozens of fiery blades have materialized above them, forming a circle around his mother and Xun Huwen. The light shining down from the swords forms a transparent barrier, separating the two from the rest of the world. “To protect someone is to remove that which could cause them harm! Xun Huwen! Your existence is a threat to my child I shall suffer no longer!”

As she speaks, more and more blades appear, filling the sky above them with radiance.

“Begone.”

The blades come down.

The barrier cracks but does not break. Despite that, Feng Hao is blown off his feet. He’d have been sent flying if someone hadn’t caught him just in time.

“Are you okay, Young Master?”

The voice is familiar. Some part of Feng Hao’s brain recognizes it as belonging to one of his brother’s servants. However, the idea of looking at this person’s face does not enter his mind. His eyes are completely focused on the battlefield. Dust swirls inside the barrier and slowly filters out through the cracks.

His mother floats several feet above the surface. Twelve blades circle around her. She does not touch the ground because it is impossible for her to do so. The ground within the barrier has been destroyed, leaving nothing more than a fathomless void behind. Feng Hao cannot see the bottom. It goes for miles and miles beneath the surface. Such was the strength of his mother’s attack.

Xun Huwen remains unscathed.

The mad cultivator stands on the air without any difficulty, a privilege granted to those who have overcome the Earth Realm. No longer are they bound by the chains of the earth. The distortion surrounding Xun Huwen has grown in power. Meanwhile, the barrier around his mother and Xun Huwen is noticeably damaged.

“Nicely done, Lady Ling,” Xun Huwen says. He even claps. “I apologize for my earlier insolence.”

“So it really was Burnt Path Manifestation,” his mother says grimly. “To think you are just in the First Level of the Heaven Realm… the Elders were right to lock you away.”

Xun Huwen snorts.

“Lady Ling, I have just now started to show actual respect to you. Why must you say such hurtful things?”

“The respect of someone like you can only manifest in Destruction,” his mother replies, readying more blades of light. They appear above her one after another like stars in the sky.

“A fair point,” Xun Huwen admits. He leans forward and crouches low, his arms hanging loosely at his sides. The posture is animal-like, more fitting for an ape than a man. The distortion around Xun Huwen focuses on his hands. Feng Hao immediately adverts his eyes. “It means you’re worth destroying!”

“Take my son away from here!” His mother cries out as she rushes forth to meet the lunging Xun Huwen. It takes a moment for Feng Hao to realize his mother is speaking to the servant.

“Wait!” Feng Hao cries as he’s carried away. He turns around and finally gets a look at the servant holding him. It is one with androgynous features his brother often uses. “What about Elder Brother? He’s still there! We cannot just leave him!”

Feng Hao had been too spellbound by the fight to do anything about Qing Jin’s state. Now that he’s being carried away, he can only lament that he did not do anything but stand and watch.

“We can and we will, Young Master,” the servant says, running at full speed. The distance separating them from the fight quickly grows by miles. “He’s alive. Content yourself with that. Going back for him now is foolishness!”

Feng Hao flushes with anger and, for one mad moment, considers fighting off this servant’s grip and rushing back to his Elder Brother.

The moment passes. The weight of his weakness is too heavy to ignore. If he were to rush back, he’d be making himself an easier target and might even get in his mother’s way.

He is Feng Hao. A prodigy among prodigies.

Once again, he’s too weak.

~~~

Young Qing Jin had almost died.

Had he not created several snakes made out of Poison Qi and wrapped them around his body before Xun Huwen’s attack struck, death would have been his fate. Even now, his body is in a precarious state. Even at his most careless, Xun Huwen had been quite thorough. The damage reaches all the way to his organs.

Though Qing Jin’s soul remains curiously conscious, there is little the young man can do other than focus all his energies towards mending himself. It will be long before he is in any condition to do anything else.

To be forced to leave oneself to the whims of fate. To lay awake, unable to do anything while the clash between Lady Ling and Xun Huwen rages on, knowing their battle could engulf him at any moment.

How dreadful.

Had he arrived even one second earlier, he’d have probably helped the boy. It isn’t often they have non-boring visitors. Still, perhaps it is a good thing he had not. Doing so would have caused him to give himself away.

“You’re slowing down, Lady Ling!” Xun Huwen shouts as the barrier around them keeps cracking. Now that her child is nowhere near them, Lady Ling barely makes an effort to maintain it.

Countless impacts shake the earth until they become a single nonstop roar. The uninitiated would no doubt consider it an even fight. However, rude as it is to even think, there is only one conclusion his meager eyes can come to.

Lady Ling is losing.

Though she attacks Xun Huwen with enough power to sunder mountains, his Qi never once falters. Instead, it is Lady Ling’s Qi that keeps diminishing. Her fiery blades dim, and her movements lose their sharpness.

The barrier shatters.

Blown back by Xun Huwen’s attack, Lady Ling’s body breaks the barrier into a thousand pieces when she crashes through it. She just barely stops herself from crashing against what remains of the mansion. Seeing her moment of weakness, Xun Huwen does not boast. He does not smile. He does not stop.

He attacks with full intent to kill.

And in that same second, he’s pushed back.

Xun Huwen’s feet skid across the ground, breaking apart the cobblestones as he recovers from the sudden hit. His eyes narrow as he stares straight ahead. Lady Ling looks on with confusion, unsure of what just happened.

“Apologies,” he says, bowing his head, “though this Mud is not worthy to stand on the same stage as such esteemed persons, Master has decreed that I be here.”

And if his Master gives the order, what else is there for him to do but obey?

“You have some guts, putting yourself in front of me.” Xun Huwen flares his aura, trying to intimidate him with it.

However, brilliant as the grandson may be, his might cannot compare to that of his grandfather.

“Guts have nothing to do with this. This Mud is nothing but an instrument of his Master’s will. Lady Ling, I hope this Mud’s presence does not offend. By no means does this one mean to imply you cannot handle this fight on your own.”

“No, by all means, imply it.” Lady Ling moves to stand beside him. “I will gladly welcome your assistance. Tell Elder Xun he has my thanks for sending you here.”

Oh, dear. She went and said it. How vicious of her. Indeed, Xun Huwen’s face falters.

“You were sent by my grandfather.” He says those words slowly, suddenly paying so much attention to Mud it is as if Lady Ling has ceased to exist. “You call my grandfather master?”

“That is so.”

Xun Huwen explodes. His fist approaches Mud’s face…

His fist approaches Mud’s face…

His fist approaches Mud’s face…

His fist approaches Mud’s face…

Xun Huwen's eyes widen. An instant later, Lady Ling’s blade is buried deep in the ground, and Xun Huwen is suddenly several yards away. He looks at Mud as though he cannot believe his existence.

“You… that is not... my grandfather raised you for the sole purpose of countering me?”

To have realized the truth so quickly. Truly, his skill had not been embellished in the slightest.

“I am Mud,” Mud repeats. “I cannot compare to a brilliant flower such as yourself. However, you will find me no easy foe.”

“You allowed this?” Xun Huwen asks, searching his face for something that is not there. “You allowed him to impose a…”

Master Xun deliberately imposed a Dao on him.

However, Xun Huwen cannot bring himself to say that. Even Lady Ling suddenly looks ill at ease at his side.

A Dao is learned.

A Dao is taught.

A Dao is discovered.

A Dao is never imposed.

Mud does not care.

Those blessed by the Heavens cannot understand the plight of those who were born with nothing. They cannot understand the feelings of a young man who was ready to quit the Eternal Flame Clan after spending over a decade as nothing but an Outer Disciple.

They cannot understand the joy of being told, “You are Mud. I will make something out of you.”

Let them feel disgust. He cares not.

“The day is ruined,” Xun Huwen says. “I will not entertain my grandfather’s insults.”

“Oh? The great Xun Huwen flees at the first sign of trouble?” Lady Ling laughs mockingly with one hand over her mouth.

“I do not care what you call it,” Xun Huwen says, turning around. “It is not as if I can kill your son now. Who knows how many more interruptions will show up? However, make no mistake. I have already accomplished something.”

He vanishes after saying that. He vanishes, and neither Lady Ling nor Mud chase after him.

That is how dangerous Xun Huwen is.

In the distance, Mud feels Lord Feng Gui’s Qi spike in anger as the servant with the Young Master reaches him. The presence of an enraged Emperor soon blankets the whole Eternal Flame Clan.

He sighs.

It is just as Xun Huwen said.

He already accomplished something.

~~~