~~~

“You cannot be serious!”

Leader Liu yells at him at the top of his lungs. His face is red, his muscles taut with tension, and the gnashing of his teeth is almost audible. However, all that pales compared to his Qi. It flares so strongly it would have made the houses around them tremble had they not already been knocked over. The people near immediately back away to escape Leader Liu’s wrath.

Liu Jin is unmoved.

“I am completely serious,” Liu Jin says. “What exactly have I said that is so outlandish?”

“Are you…?” Leader Liu raises his hands as though he were about to strangle him but restrains himself. “You just said you’re going to Thunder Blade Fortress!”

It is not that Liu Jin doesn’t understand his frustration. It has been mere minutes since Leader Liu and his men arrived. They have not had time to rest or settle down. Considering it has not been a full day since the City Lord’s death, Leader Liu must have left the Brotherhood’s hideout as soon as he received his letter. In a more fair world, Liu Jin would wait until Leader Liu and his men were rested before having this conversation.

However, there is no time for that.

“I did, and I meant it,” Liu Jin says.

“Then you’re a fool!” Leader Liu shouts, angrily waving his hands and pacing around. “The Lei Clan is one of the strongest powers under Murong Bang! Do you think you can just go there and ask them to hear you out like you did with us?!”

“No, I think I can go there and demand that they hear me, and if they don’t, I will use force.” Liu Jin says. He narrows his eyes. “Part of me hopes they make me use force. I am quite angry with them.”

With those words, the anger falls away from Leader Liu’s face. He looks at Liu Jin as though seeing him for the first time.

“You’re serious,” he says.

“I nearly always am.”

“Do you really think you can do this?”

“I know I can,” Liu Jin replies firmly. There is no hesitation in him. “That is why I want to ask you to stay in charge of the city while I’m gone.”

Yet again, Leader Liu finds himself at a loss.

“What?”

“Someone needs to stay in charge,” Liu Jin says. “The people suffered during the battle and need someone to guide them. There is no point leaving my soldiers in charge. They wouldn’t know what to do. You, however, have led the Brotherhood of Thunder for many years and clearly care for the people. There is no one more suited.”

Leader Liu takes a moment to look at the ruined city behind him and the people being led to hastily made shelters.

“You ask me as though you were giving me a choice,” Leader Liu tells him. “Regardless of what I say, you are planning on leaving.”

“I am,” Liu Jin admits. “I have only stayed this long because I needed to heal the most wounded and restore my soldiers before the next stage. Had you not arrived so quickly, I would have left someone else in charge.” Perhaps Ten or Lu Mei. “However, you are here, Leader Liu. I am sorry for forcing this on you, but that you clearly feel you have no choice but to accept makes you the perfect choice. Whether it can be a permanent appointment is something that can be discussed later.”

“Whether it can be a permanent…” Leader Liu stops talking and takes a long, deep breath. “Have you forgotten Murong Bang exists?!”

“His existence is why I am not offering it as a permanent position. Murong Bang told me that I could deal with the thieves however I wanted so long as I reached gold lightning, and I have. However, I realize taking Murong Bang at his word is not a solid foundation for anything,” Liu Jin admits. “It is possible, probable even, that what awaits me at the end of this is death at his hands.”

“Then why?!”

“Death should not be an impediment to do anything worth doing,” Liu Jin replies.

Leader Liu stares at him.

“You’re mad.”

Liu Jin thinks about it.

“I might be.”

~~~

Thunder Blade Fortress is both larger and smaller than Liu Jin expected it to be.

Certainly, the fortress is large and imposing. The walls around it are made of gigantic blocks of ebony stone, each one wider than a person is tall. The actual fortress rises high into the sky, protecting power to all who see it. It is no wonder that Thunder Blade Fortress used to be the Storm Dragon Empire’s first line of defense and the launching point of many of their attacks against the Crimson Cloud Empire.

However, that’s all there is to it.

Liu Jin can sense the people living in Thunder Blade Fortress, and their number is pitiful when compared to the space they have. When Liu Jin learned most of the Lei Clan was living in Thunder Blade Fortress, he’d imagined it as a fortress town, but it is nothing of the sort. Lei Kong tells him there used to be a town, but much like the fortress, it had dwindled away during the Black Dragon’s reign and the civil war. The Lei Clan used the wealth they gained from allying themselves to Murong Bang to rebuild the fortress, but they had done no more.

Thunder Blade Fortress is little more than an empty building.

Its surroundings are similarly empty. There is nothing but plains for miles, leaving Liu Jin and his men few ways to hide their advance, not that they are trying to. It would be extremely easy for anyone looking from the walls to spot them.

Sure enough, a massive Qi rises from the fortress once they are a mile away. Liu Jin’s soldiers find their knees buckling, and a few even fall to the ground as the massive presence coming from Thunder Blade Fortress seems to almost blot out the sun.

It is the power of a cultivator in the Heaven Realm.

It is the power of Lei Leji, leader of the Lei Clan and Lei Kong’s uncle.

“Lei Kong. Shame of the Lei Clan. Never once did I imagine your worthless self would dare show his face around here again.”

The soldiers wince and cover their ears, not that it does them much good. Lei Leji is not speaking loudly. He is projecting his voice with so much power that it reaches beyond the fortress. It is as if his voice were booming directly into their minds. Liu Jin imagines that the people living in Thunder Blade Fortress are not having an easier time bearing such an extreme projection of Qi.

“Nevertheless,” Lei Leji continues. “Since you have come here, you might as well enter so that I might look at your face.”

The words are almost like what a grandfather would say, but there is nothing grandfatherly about Lei Leji’s tone. If Lei Kong lets Lei Leji look at his face, he’ll probably end up losing it.

“Lei Kong will be going nowhere with you,” Liu Jin says. Unlike Lei Leji, who can just flare his Qi to be heard across the land, Liu Jin has to carefully focus it in the direction of Thunder Blade Fortress to achieve a similar feat.

“I do not recall giving anyone permission to speak,” Lei Leji says. “Consider it your good fortune that you are alive and leave this place. You have brought my nephew here. I have no further interest in you.”

“Would you say that if you knew that Rainstorm City has fallen and that I killed your nephew, Lei Jihai?”

“My lord, that’s wrong,” Lei Kong says. He frowns and focuses his Qi toward Thunder Blade Fortress. “Uncle, it was I who killed Lei Jihai. I have no regrets.”

Lei Leji does not answer them with words.

His Qi erupts. Liu Jin’s men fall to the ground one by one, flattened by the sheer force of Lei Leji’s power. The clouds turn dark in the blink of an eye, and lightning blazes in the skies.

A single golden bolt falls down.

It takes the shape of a ferocious golden dragon roaring as it falls upon them. Liu Jin and Lei Kong can do nothing against that sort of power.

They do not have to.

Bai Wen moves, and the temperature drops. Lightning strikes. Ice rises. For a moment, Liu Jin cannot see due to how blinding the impact is. He can scarcely feel because the powers clashing are simply that immense.

All Liu Jin knows is that by the time he can see again, he is still alive, and so are the soldiers behind him. Big Sister Bai has protected them by forming a shield of ice around them. It has a few cracks, yet it holds firm.

Big Sister Bai stands in front of them, unharmed, yet the bulky rags she always kept on her person have been blown away.

For the first time, Liu Jin sees Big Sister Bai as she is.

Her robes are a mix of white and blue. The material they are made of is very thin and does little to disguise what is, without a doubt, an exquisite body. Big Sister Bai has her back to them, and Liu Jin thinks that perhaps that is for the best. Something tells him that if the men were to see her face, they’d probably fall in love with her forever.

“That was interesting,” Big Sister Bai says. “I heard Murong Bang forced cultivators to step into the Renegade Realm as soon as they’re capable, so I did not expect much from you, but it seems I must revise my opinion.”

It takes Liu Jin a moment to realize she used Qi in her voice. Though she clearly gave her voice the same reach as Lei Leji, the way she uses her Qi is so subtle that not one person is bothered by it. Some probably still do not even realize it was not Big Sister Bai’s voice that they heard but her Qi.

Amazing.

Utterly and completely amazing.

A wave of her hand restores the ice barrier surrounding them. Seemingly not content with that, the ice thickens and grows large spikes projected outwards.

Liu Jin does not feel cold at all.

“However!” Big Sister Bai starts calmly walking to Thunder Blade Fortress. “Someone like you is still not my match. Normally, I’d offer you the chance to surrender, but considering the various crimes the Lei Clan has committed against its citizens, the only choice I will allow you is that between a quick death and a quick and violent death. Choose wisely.”

The roof of Thunder Blade Fortress breaks as giant arcs of lightning rise from it. Right in between them is a man that can only be Lei Leji.

In the blink of an eye, he’s falling towards them like a meteor.

Bai Wen rises to meet him.

The two Heaven Realm cultivators clash, and every cloud in the sky is blown away. The earth quakes for miles. Clouds of thunder and frost appear one after another. Rain and hail fall without end. The formidable Thunder Blade Fortress suddenly trembles like a house of cards.

Liu Jin’s soldiers scream. They run around trying to flee but can’t escape the barrier. Some fall to their knees and cover their faces while sobbing. They shut their eyes and plug their ears to deny the reality before them.

The words to calm them escape him. The idea of rallying them does not even occur to him.

Liu Jin can only stare at the heavens.

It is wild. It is fast. It is blinding. Most of the time, Liu Jin can barely comprehend what he is looking at. He cannot even see the fighters, merely the aftereffects of their attacks.

And yet, despite all that, he cannot look away.

He can feel the raging of their souls echoing throughout the land with such intensity even his own soul cannot help but shake.

To Liu Jin, it feels like hours pass.

In reality, the whole thing does not last more than a minute. One voice prevails; the other one is snuffed out forever.

A frozen corpse falls down from the skies.

Moments later, Bai Wen floats down in front of them. She is once again covered by a heavy brown cloak.

“He was not a weak foe,” she says as she dismisses the ice barrier with a wave of her hand. “What a pity that he chose to be a villain.”

She glances back at Liu Jin.

“Without Lei Leji, no one in that fortress comes close to my level. I can go in there right now and end this without you needing to do anything. There is no need for you to trouble yourself further,” she tells him.

“And yet, I ask that you let me trouble myself, Big Sister Bai.”

“Are you sure you can handle what follows?” She asks him.

Liu Jin looks ahead. The doors of Thunder Blade Fortress have conveniently been blown wide open.

“Yes, Big Sister Bai,” Liu Jin says. “I believe so.”

Liu Jin and his men march into Thunder Blade fortress unopposed.

~~~

Lei Kong is not sure how to feel.

Once upon a time, he had lived in Thunder Blade Fortress. He had grown up adored until he wasn’t. One day, his uncle decided he was not an asset but a threat. A tragic accident was arranged, and the prodigy of the Lei Clan became its laughingstock.

His uncle is dead now.

If it weren’t for the display of power he had just witnessed, Lei Kong would probably feel happy about it. As it is, he feels unbearably small. He walks through Thunder Blade Fortress and can only marvel at how such a small place was once a source of fear for him. He can only laugh at himself for thinking his family members, who now shrink in fear as they advance, were ever a threat.

Only five members of the Lei Clan try to stop their advance.

Each one is put down swiftly and decisively by his lord. He does not kill them. Not yet. His snake constructs merely carry their defeated bodies like trophies as they make their way inside the fortress.

In less than an hour, the leaders of the Lei Clan and its strongest fighters are all gathered in front of his lord, just as they once gathered before Lei Leji. With Lady Bai at his right and he at his left, it could be no different. With his uncle dead, the stronger members of the Lei Clan are barely in the Earth Realm.

It is pitiful. His uncle had gambled on Lei Yu’s growth, but Lei Yu died years ago.

“I am quite sure you all know why I have gathered you here,” his lord says. A different person would be happy and even smug in victory. His lord merely looks somber. “Everyone here has been complicit with the slave trade and benefited it from it. There is no need for me to list the crimes of your family in detail because you know them by heart. Is there anything you want to say in your defense?”

“Arrogant brat!” shouts one of his uncles. “Who do you think you are to pass judgment on us?”

“Do I need to be anyone?” His lords answer them. “Is status necessary to name a person’s wrongs? I do not believe that to be the case, yet the world believes differently. That being the case…”

He lifts a finger. Gold lightning sparks on top of it.

However…

For a moment.

For a second.

Purple flashes before everyone.

“That’s not… That cannot be…” His uncle is at a loss for words, and so are the others with him. Even Lei Kong is not sure what to think despite already knowing about it. To be honest, he does not want to think at all.

So he doesn’t.

“A trick. It has to be!” Another one of his uncles cries out.

“That would be better for everyone, wouldn’t it?” His lord asks. He almost sounds wistful. “But no. It is not. Not that it matters. You still seem to think you are in a position to object. You are not. Your clan head is dead, and Murong Bang will not save you because you have stolen from him. The only authority here right now is ours.”

His uncle sneers at him. “If you seek to kill us, why talk? If you are here to finish what the Black Dragon started, then get on with it!”

His lord laughs. It is the saddest laugh Lei Kong has ever heard.

“Finish what the Black Dragon started,” he says, shaking his head. “I suppose it can be seen that way, but no. You do not need to die. In fact, whether you die or not is entirely up to you,” his lord explains, not that his former clan understands. “All of you are too dangerous as cultivators to try to imprison. The closest jail that can do it is not close at all, and I doubt they’d wish to waste their resources on you. I could ask Big Sister Bai to do it, but…”

“I would happily leave you frozen in a prison of ice forever,” Lady Bai says, her tone far too eager at the prospect. “The ice would burn your skin and continuously damage your nerves and souls. You would be conscious of every second of it, of course. The suffering you have inflicted on your people demands no less.”

“I thought that would be too cruel,” his lord says as the strongest members of the Lei Clan shiver. “That is why I will give you a choice. You can die here for your crimes, or you can die as cultivators.”

“What?!”

“Your dantian,” his lord explains, pointing at them. “Allow them to be destroyed. Die as cultivators, and you will be allowed to live.”

“You…” One of his cousins shakes with rage. “How dare you! Do you believe you can come here and dictate terms like that?!”

“Did you all believe you could sell your own people and never face consequences for it?” His lord replies

His cousin throws himself at Liu Jin, and emboldened by this act, other members join in the attack.

Others, however, choose to stand by. They lower their heads and close their eyes.

One way or another, the mightiest warriors of the Lei Clan die that day.

~~~