There was no way Kiyu could allow Zhèngyi to be executed. She had taken the precaution of memorizing the position of the guards. Without a warning she jumped to the first, which she sent flying against the wall of the dungeon with a powerful hit to the pit of the stomach.

The second guard just torn open her eyes and open her mouth in shock before she, too, crashed into the wall with a groan and slumped unconscious.

"What are you doing?" cried Zhèngyi in shock, having pressed herself against the gate.

"Deciding!", Kiyu declared her with a determination that almost felt good for her, and that although she was about to commit another crime.

However, neither of the guards carried the keys Kiyu needed to free her sister.

Zhèngyi had already let himself out through his abilities and was also looking everywhere for the keys.

"Forget it," Kiyu called to him and approached the bars. With each hand, she gripped one of the long, metallic bars that would never bend under normal circumstances.

But Kiyu tensed every muscle in her body to the breaking point, supporting her body with her spiritual energy.

"Come on!" she cried, pulling the two bars apart with full force. Compared to a wooden beam or even Toras' plant dome, this was another ball game, but even the metal bars gave in to her efforts.

She wiped her forehead with one hand to keep the sweat from dripping into her eyes. "There you go," she replied, panting.

"So what now?", Laki asked her, looking unsettled. "The whole villa is full of soldiers. And now that Xianzhu is back and Zhèngyi is to be executed, I'm sure even more than usual."

"Let me worry about that." replied Kiyu, walking up the stone steps to the first floor first. "Don't you let anyone near Laki, understand?" she called to the back.

"Hey you there! Stop, in the name of lord Xian...", brought out a guard who had spotted the escaping group before being interrupted by Kiyu with a "Yeah yeah, it's fine" followed by a massive punch.

Unlike the attacks in the dungeon, however, this one had caused more attention.

"Go, you know where!" yelled Kiyu, running into the larger crowd of guards that had gathered in the long hallway. They had formed a defensive line with spears, to keep the group at bay.

But she would not let that stop her. Without even a thought, she ran into the defensive line in front of her, letting the spear attacks bounce off her body.

She took advantage of the moment of shock from some defenders to hurl them to the ground.

Zhèngyi and Laki ran as Kiyu had ordered through the swath she had cut through the line of defenders, while she stayed behind to hold off the remaining soldiers.

"I don't think they'll give up," she sighed, taking out one enemy after another so that none could pursue her friends.

But not wanting to leave them to the next collection of soldiers, she dashed forward with superhuman speed to catch up to the other two.

Like an impenetrable bulwark, she fought her way through the ranks of common soldiers who tried to prevent her from escaping.

'Now that Siwang Mao can't stop me anymore, it's so much easier'

A grin flitted across her lips, and Kiyu had to admit to herself that she had taken a liking to it. Enjoying being stronger, but also being able to protect what was important to her.

In all these years, she had never had this glorious feeling before, because until now, she had only ever had something taken away from her.

At least from her old point of view. If she followed Cheryu's teachings, everything she got was nothing but borrowed from nature and reclaimed by nature, anyway.

Either way, she just felt like she was on a high, which she savored to the fullest, while not killing anyone.

She hadn't even noticed how much time had passed. Instead, she ran through every cluster of soldiers they could find, while using it to help Laki and Zhèngyi make their way out.

warned her Cheryu, who had overheard Kiyu getting more and more lost in the joy of battle.

'Somehow I have to get all their attention!' she hissed. 'The more they focus on me, the less they pay attention to the other two.'

For all her belligerent demeanor, she still had thoughts about it as she made her way down the hall, passing men taller than herself. As she darted through the hallway lit from outside, they could see only her shadow as she sprinted past the windows.

With each battle, she grew more accustomed to a greater use of her spiritual energy and did not feel exhausted as soon as she exerted herself a little.

The shouts and clangs of weapons echoed through the long hallways, testifying to the battle she was having with Xianzhu's men.

After countless minor skirmishes, they had reached the main hall, which led outside and thus into the park through which they were trying to escape.

"Almost there!" exclaimed Zhèngyi, already cheering as he and Laki ran out of the house.

Kiyu, who had been fighting off some last soldiers inside, also headed for the house entrance.

They could no longer compare her to what she had delivered a week earlier in the marketplace against the three to four dozen guards who had surrounded her.

Within that one week of intensive training with Toras, and also through the battle with Siwang, she had learned to use her spiritual energy far more effectively and could accumulate a larger pool as well.

"How unfortunate!" a voice familiar to her called out.

Kiyu had pushed herself between Laki and Zhèngyi and pushed them aside without reducing her strength too much.

She wanted to put as much distance as possible between herself and the other two after she saw what had moved toward the group.

A focused beam of fire sped toward her, leaving her only time to raise her bare hands in front of her surprised face, thanks to her rescue operation.

A sharp pain ran through her hand as the beam of fire hit her hand. However, much more painful was the sudden explosion that occurred in front of her, enveloping her in a wave of fire.

"AAAAH!" Heat rippled through her entire body and she formed her aching hands into fists, but it only made the burned skin hurt all the more.

"I hoped that you and the other girl would disappear, leaving the boy to his just fate," lord Xianzhu opened, lowering his outstretched hand from which he had sent the beam of fire.

"No way! Impossible!" whispered Kiyu, looking wide-eyed at the man she had hitherto thought to be only an ordinary ruler.

She bit her lower lip to forget her burned hands for a moment and looked left and right instead. Laki and Zhèngyi had both landed on the ground, but unlike her, unharmed.

'No men,' Kiyu realized as she looked around. Only Xianzhu stood in the way of the three. A bad sign, if the ruler of an entire city is without a single guard around him!

"You didn't think I'd leave a friend behind, did you?" she shouted back, upset, and in the meantime healed the crudest damage to her burns.

Although her entire body had suffered some, her hands, which she had held up for protection, were the most affected.

"Hm," he replied, glancing at Zhèngyi, "a great friend you have here, who needs protecting and can't even stand by you at a critical moment," he said.

"Without him, you could have taken the girl and dodged," he continued. "But now it's too late, in my city there's no turning back!" he shouted, raising his right hand again, but this time with the palm facing up.

"Freeing a prisoner condemned to death is a serious crime," he uttered, forming a gigantic ball of flame in his hand. " which is also punishable by death!"

The fireball approached at breakneck speed, and Kiyu only just dodged the attack, which now set the inside of the mansion on fire instead.

So Xianzhu could not only shoot a beam of fire, but shape it at will?

"Well, are you understanding my ability now?" he wondered, seeming to enjoy himself.

As if Kiyu was a pastime for his boredom.

"I guess. You control fire..." she confirmed, not taking her eyes off her opponent for a moment. "No, you don't just control it, you create it out of thin air beforehand," she corrected herself.

"Correct," he noted. "I can turn my spiritual energy into fire by me and controlled at my will."

"You, however," he replied, glancing at Kiyu's hands, which had healed somewhat, "seem to do something with the body."

"Anyway, your regeneration increases through your ability."

'Damn' It was already clear that she was a Spiritformer, but no one had yet realized the true nature of her abilities. But this threatening man in front of her had only had to take one look at her to see through her!