Wu Jian could have sighed in relief. He had just barely made it in time. Thinking about what might have happened if he had been just a tad later filled him with dread, caused a chill to run down his back. Yet this wouldn’t have been an issue if it wasn’t for that blasted flood dragon.

“Wu… Jian… is that really you?”

Hou Jingshu was so shocked that she forgot to call him Jian Wu, but, well, he couldn’t blame her. She’d been about to be killed. He’d probably be like this, too, if their positions had been reversed.

“It’s me. I apologize for arriving so late. Someone decided to pick a fight with the women from the Ice Phoenix Sect.”

“Eh?”

At that moment, a roar that shook the earth echoed around the palace. It was followed by the shrill cries of several ice phoenixes.

Shadows appeared overhead. Wu Jian and Hou Jingshu looked up. Several massive birds with blue feathers and silver plumage soared above them, and a number of beautiful young women leapt from the birds and descended to the ground. Two people she recognized descended with them. Zhou Lihua and Master Wong Jiu. Among those who had come was also Hua Xue, though she floated down instead of dropped. Next to her was a woman who looked several years older, with hair done up in ornate braids and a long silver robe with light blue trim. She had skin like snow, ice like ice, hair so white it appeared translucent, and a few wrinkles denoting her age.

“Well, now! It seems something interesting happened to this kingdom while I was gone,” someone said.

Hou Jingshu looked toward the source of the voice, a young man who floated in the air. She immediately knew he wasn’t human. Horns jutted from his cerulean hair, wings spread from his back, and a tail swished back and forth underneath his hanfu. Her breath caught in her throat.

“Wu Jian… is that…?”

“Ah… yeah. He’s a flood dragon. Don’t worry. He’s on our side… I think.”

Dragon.

“You… think?”

Wu Jian opened his mouth, but then the man glanced at Hou Jingshu, and she froze underneath those intense eyes with slitted pupils.

“Oi, brat! That girl in your arms is the dragon? She has your scent all over her.”

Hou Jingshu’s cheeks burned red. Even Wu Jian felt his face get a little hot.

“Yes, this is her! And can you not say that out loud?!”

“Why not? Who cares if everyone knows you two are copulating?!”

“I care! Now shut up!”

“Uh… um… Wu… no, Jian Wu, can you explain what’s going on?”

“I’ll do that a little later. First, we need to deal with these invaders. Can you stand?”

“Oh, um. Yes, I think so.”

Wu Jian set Hou Jingshu on her feet. Her legs wobbled a little, but he placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her steady, until she regained her strength.

“I’m fine now,” she said.

He smiled, then glanced at the whimpering Yōuměi, and frowned. He looked at Li Liang. The man was cradling his right hand… or rather, his right stump. Wu Jian had severed that hand while rescuing Hou Jingshu. He’d been moving too fast to really take stock of the situation, but if he had known Yōuměi was injured, he would have taken much more than just a hand.

He turned back to Hou Jingshu.

“Take care of Yōuměi for me while I take care of this guy,” he said.

Wu Jian didn’t give Hou Jingshu time to respond. He walked forward, lightly kicking the twitching hand on the ground out of his way, until he was standing a short distance from Li Liang. The man eyed him curiously before chuckling.

“Are you Jian Wu? I’ve heard a lot about you. You know, I wanted to fight you ever since I heard about you, but…” He glanced at Wu Jian and shook his head. “You seem pretty weak.”

“Say that after you beat me,” said Wu Jian.

“Hah. I admire your courage. Well, your little princess there was made of strong stuff, so perhaps you will too.”

Wu Jian took a deep breath as he gathered his chi. Li Liang also prepared to attack. He rushed forward, pumping chi into his legs to increase his strength, but Wu Jian didn’t let him get to far. He threw a punch. Space folded around his fist, and Li Liang staggered as his head snapped backward. Wu Jian raised his hands, clasped them together, and brough them down. Space folded again. The loud clapping of two fists hammering into someone’s face echoed around the palace grounds. Li Liang’s entire body contorted backwards, then it did so even more when Wu Jian once more struck him.

“What the…” Li Liang laid on the ground, in a body shaped crater, utterly baffled. “How…? You’re fists aren’t any stronger than the princess’s, so why do your attacks hit so much harder?”

“I’m not going to tell that to a dead man. Now suffer.”

Before the man could respond, Wu Jian brought his foot down in a powerful stomp. Space folded around his foot. Li Liang must have gotten his senses back. He rolled across the ground, then glanced at where he’d been laying. A footprint crater rested on the ground where his head had been. He looked up and eyed Wu Jian.

“I see you’ve got some unique skills. No wonder Yi Fu was so concerned about you.” Li Liang stood up and cracked his neck. “All right. You’ve earned my respect. I’ll take this seriously from now on. Get ready cuz--eh?”

Li Liang was cutoff mid-comment as blood spurt from his other limb. He raised his left arm to his face. His hand was missing. Blood gushed from the stump like a fountain.

Wu Jian had not been idle during his journey back here. Every day after they traveled, he trained with Loong Chen, fighting the flood dragon until his body was broken and battered. Then Zhou Lihua would heal him with alchemy pills and he’d do it all over again. He fought and fought and fought. Thanks to all the combat experience he accumulated by fighting someone so much stronger than him, Wu Jian was able hone his techniques to a fine point. It no longer mattered if someone was at the Deva Realm. He could cut through them with his spatial techniques. He didn’t even need the activate Byakko’s blood.

“Well?” asked Wu Jian, staring at Li Liang like he was worth less than a turd. “What are you gonna do without your hands?”

Li Liang glared at Wu Jian, but then he roared and raced forward. Wu Jian let him come this time. It wasn’t enough for him to just remove this man’s limbs. He wanted him to suffer. This man had tried to take something that didn’t belong to him. He tried to claim this kingdom for himself, and he tried to hurt someone Wu Jian cherished. That meant he had to suffer before he died.

Wu Jian dodged the man’s kick, though he almost missed the slide tackle Li Liang slid into. The man pressed his stumps into the ground and tried to mule kick him, but Wu Jian activated Nihility and let it phase through him. Then he summoned Pale Moon, stepped to the left, and swung. His blade was coated with the Dao of Space, slicing through the limb with ease. The leg went flying off at the joint. This time, even Li Liang could not help but gasp in pain, though he still tried to attack with his only remaining limb.

Wu Jian removed that too.

He looked down at the older man. With his legs now missing, he really couldn’t do anything.

“You say I’m weak, but you can’t even defend against this weakling,” Wu Jian taunted.

“Tch. Don’t get cocky. The only reason you were able to harm me like this is because I used so much of my chi fighting the princess. Your attacks would have never worked on me if not for that.”

“That’s true. You did use up more than half your chi, but surely, a great Deva Realm cultivator such as yourself can do a better job than that?”

“...”

“Got nothing to say? Fine. I’ll end you here.”

Wu Jian raised Pale Moon, more than prepared to end this man’s life. Li Liang did nothing more than gaze at the sword with clear eyes. Even though he was about to die, he didn’t show any fear. Wu Jian felt a begrudging respect for him.

“Wait!”

He was just about to bring Pale Moon down on this man’s throat when Hou Jingshu shouted at him. Frowning, he glanced at the woman as she stretched her hand out as though to stop him. Yōuměi was now standing beside her. She looked a little wobbly, but she seemed mostly healed.

“Why? This man invaded your kingdom. He’s a threat. We need to kill him before he can threaten us again.”

“You are right. He is a threat. However, he’s also honorable. I think we can reach an understanding with him. Besides…” Hou Jingshu took a deep breath. “We can use him.”

“Oh?”

“I’d rather you just kill me,” Li Liang mumbled.

“I refuse,” said Hou Jingshu, smiling. “Death is too good for you anyway. I’m gonna put you to work, whether you like it or not.”

“Ha. Ha ha ha ha. Haaaah. You’re a strange one, princess.”

Hou Jingshu shrugged. Wu Jian took a deep breath, held it, then slowly lowered Pale Moon. He stepped away from Li Liang and turned. He didn’t think he could look at the man a second longer without feeling the urge to kill him.

Now that he was no longer focused solely on Li Liang, he was able to see what was happening to everyone else. The Ice Phoenix Sect led by Hua Xue and their sect master battled against the Ming Province’s members. Their overwhelming numbers and Hua Xue’s strength meant they were quickly subdued. Huo Yi and Duo Long were quickly felled by the women’s ice techniques. Xao Wen had already been killed some time before they arrived. Feng Yi was unfortunate enough to find himself fighting against Hua Xue. She had already been forced to unleash her true strength prior to arriving here, which meant he was hanging on by a thread. He was quite lucky.

However, the real treat was the battle between Loong Chen and the Zhou Kingdom’s elites: the emperor and his Heavenly Generals. He had replaced the two that had previously been fighting. Wu Jian didn’t know one of them, but he was very surprised to see Hundan Wang present. Hadn’t he gone off to the Heavenly Sword Sect?

“What’s wrong? Are you three not going to attack? I’m presenting the perfect opportunity. Tell you what? I’ll let you each get at least one attack without retaliate. Go on. Show me what you can do. Impress me enough, and I might let you live.”

Wu Jian shook his head. Loong Chen was the most arrogant bastard he’d ever met. Even Huo Schuchang had not been this bad! Yet it wasn’t like his arrogance was unfounded.

After all, this man was at the peak of the Perfection Realm.

Emperor Ca Shi glanced at his two generals. Neither looked like they wanted to fight anymore. Wu Jian didn’t blame them. They were no doubt experiencing the same overwhelming fear he had when Loong Chen first confronted him.

“Not going to attack?” Loong Chen paused, waiting for them to respond, then shrugged. “Very well. I guess I’ll just kill you now--”

“Wait! Great one! Hold on just a moment! We have no quarrel with you! My people and I have never wronged you in any way, so why are you doing this?!” Emperor Ca Shi no longer resembled a despotic ruler. He looked more like the trash people discarded on the side of the road.

“Why? Hmmm.” Loong Chen looked like he was thinking, then grinned. “If had to give you a reason… it’s because I don’t like your face.”

Loong Chen did not give the man another second of his time. He swung his hand out. It was like he was gesturing at something, and nothing seemed to happen at first, but then Emperor Ci Sha coughed out blood as his lower half slid away from his upper half. The two halves fell from the sky and crashed to the ground with meaty thumps. After seeing this, Xuan Su and Jiang Yijun tried to flee, but Loong Chen laughed at them.

“Do you think you can flee from me?”

He reached out and opened his hand as though to grab the pair. His grin was nothing if not vicious.

“Now disappear.”

He clenched his hand, and the two Heavenly Generals exploded, their gore raining down to soak the ground below.

It looked like the tides had turned, and yet, just as the thought occurred to him, the Dragon’s Gate opened and three people stepped out.

“Everyone stop what you are doing! Unless you want to see the Shang Kingdom’s emperor die!”

Wu Jian turned with everyone else. Three people stood outside the gate. Wu Jian vaguely recognized the handsome man with long hair, but he couldn’t quite remember where he’d seen them. Most of his attention was on the other two anyway. Hou Gun, brother of Hou Jingshu, firmly grasped his own father by the throat and was pointing a sword at the frail man’s neck.