~~~

Feng Zhi propels himself into the skies using golden flames, fighting the natural pull of the Curse of the Earth, and rains fire on his foes. Nearly a hundred are killed in an instant. Monsters turn to cinders. Men die with their armor melted over their corpses. It all happens so quickly that they do not even have the chance to scream.

Feng Zhi allows himself a proud smile.

This is how things should be.

No need to worry about everyone’s hidden plots. No need to be on his guard for over a dozen incredibly obvious betrayals. No need to watch over Feng Hao. All those concerns have been left in another country. In the Storm Dragon Empire, he only needs to worry about Yi Jiao, who, despite his many attempts to convince her otherwise, chose against staying in Rumbling Thunder City.

Feng Zhi would usually appreciate that she chose not to take advantage of his status to receive preferential treatment but now is not the time. At least she agreed to stay at the back of the army. She’ll be safe there.

He’ll make sure of it.

Feng Zhi sees some of the Fleshcrafter’s bizarre creatures trying to force their way through their formation. He flies over them and raises his arms to create a huge wall of flames that blocks their path. Not content with that, he grits his teeth and pushes, forcing the wall of flames to burn the monsters as they try to retreat.

The soldiers he has just saved cheer for him, something Feng Zhi has grown to appreciate over this campaign. It is nice to be admired on his merits rather than because of who his father is.

Curious as it might sound, Feng Zhi has found an odd sort of freedom in this broken land. Unlike in the Eternal Flame Clan, the situation in the Storm Dragon Empire is as simple as it could possibly be, and it has only grown simpler since they arrived here. The lines are clear. There are three Emperors vying for power. Two are on their side, and the other one is holed up in the castle.

It will all be over soon.

Feng Zhi will even dare to say the outcome has already been decided. This whole battle is largely performative. General He Bin will die, and General Murong Bang will follow a few days later. If General Nie Dan happens to lose, well, that doesn’t really matter. Killing an ally of the Eternal Flame Clan will give them cause to send one of the Elders to take care of the mad Emperor.

Either way, the Storm Dragon Empire will belong to the Eternal Flame Clan when this is all over. It’s all perfectly simple.

There’s just one annoying little problem…

“Qing Jin!”

Feng Zhi immediately incinerates that creature that dared to utter that damnable name. His flame burns so brightly that it blinds everyone nearby.

Even here.

Even here, he’s not allowed to put that stupid person out of his mind!

Instead of being able to freely hate the disciple of the Death Fashioning Scripture for daring to try to kidnap Feng Hao, Feng Zhi is forced to feel a fleeting moment of empathy for him.

Pathetic.

“Make way!”

As if summoned by such a fitting description of his person, the fool that dared to reject his kindness comes crashing down on one of the Fleshcrafter’s creatures. The impact splatters its gross insides everywhere, and Feng Zhi is suddenly all too grateful for the flames that keep his body protected and his clothes clean.

Fire is truly the superior element.

“What are you doing here?” Feng Zhi asks Huang Shing, grimacing as the idiot uses Qi to blast away the bits of flesh trying to eat through his aura. How inelegant. It is no wonder Yi Jiao dreaded spending the rest of her life with him. What a waste that would have been.

Huang Shing scowls at him, as if only now noticing his presence. Obviously, that is completely impossible. For all his many flaws, the upstart’s fighting talent is such that he would never lose track of someone as strong as him.

“It’s a battle, isn’t it?” Huang Shing replies, his fists glowing with power as he smashes the creatures around him. “If we destroy all the enemies, we win. I’m destroying the enemy.”

An overly simplistic outlook, but he’s not wrong. Feng Zhi cannot even tell him he’s out of formation. From the beginning, people like Huang Shing were never expected to stick to a formation. The role of him and other fighters of the Eternal Flame Clan is to sow as much chaos as possible.

“Your presence is unrequired. I have things handled here.”

To demonstrate his point, Feng Zhi snaps his fingers and instantly incinerates all the monsters around Huang Shing.

He grins smugly when the upstart glares at him.

“Why don’t you go help that friend of yours?” Feng Zhi asks him. “It looks like he needs it.”

Despite trying very hard to ignore Qing Jin’s presence, Feng Zhi has not missed what is happening to him. Murong Bang’s second-in-command is parading Qing Jin around the battlefield, most likely trying to use his presence to attract the Fleshcrafter’s creatures. If Feng Zhi has noticed that, then Huang Shing, who actually cares for Qing Jin, definitely has as well.

To his surprise, Huang Shing shrugs and shakes his head.

“No, there’s no need for me to go help him,” Huang Shing says. “He’s Brother Jin. He’ll be fine.”

Feng Zhi’s eye twitches. There’s something very annoying about the way the upstart says those words. He says them with confidence that borders on certainty. The idiot truly believes there is no need to worry about Qing Jin, and that bothers him more than any taunt or insult that Huang Shing could have thrown his way.

It’s not because there is no one who would speak of him with such trust. Not at all.

That would be utterly childish of him.

“So, is he really of royal blood?” Huang Shing asks, making a vein throb on Feng Zhi’s forehead. “Everyone is saying he is, and supposedly, the storm thing blocking our way could only be undone by someone of royal blood, but I’m not sure if that’s just something we’re making up so it all looks more legitimate.”

Feng Zhi blasts a whole squadron of men stupid enough to try to attack them.

Destroying them brings him no satisfaction.

“Does it matter?” He asks, his voice nearly a growl.

The annoying upstart smiles. He hadn’t been trying to anger him, but he could tell that he had. In that stupid mind of his, this exchange probably counts as some sort of victory.

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“No, I guess it doesn’t,” the upstart says before leaping back into the fray.

And really, what else needs to be said? Royal blood? Son of the Black Dragon?

What do any of those things matter?

The Storm Dragon Empire belongs to the Eternal Flame Clan. At best, Qing Jin’s… ancestry will make the transition process easier. No matter what plot Qing Jin has (and to be honest, Feng Zhi is really starting to doubt Qing Jin has any sort of plot beyond rushing into the next clearly dangerous situation), that truth will not change.

And yet…

And yet…

His conversation with Qing Jin’s woman flashes through his mind. No doubt, she knew the truth back then. Feng Zhi looks at Huang Shing’s back and considers blasting him out of spite, but what purpose would that serve? There is no sense in killing him, no matter how much he annoys him.

There is also no sense in killing Qing Jin or his woman.

Feng Zhi sighs and aims his hand to his left, burning everything that happens to be standing in that direction. There is no friendly fire, of course. He knew before aiming that he would only hit his enemies.

Feng Zhi wishes everything would be that simple all the time.

It would all be so simple if he always knew who to burn.

After the Dead Plains, he thought he understood things a little better. His cultivation, which had been stagnant for so long, began moving once more. He stepped from the first level of the Earth Realm to the second. Now, he’s on the Third. What could that be the result of other than increased maturity on his part?

Now, Feng Zhi is starting to think that maybe it was just the result of being free of several stressors. He no longer has to worry about a bloody succession because the succession has been decided. He also doesn’t have to worry about Feng Hao being targeted. His grandfather made his displeasure of such tactics clear enough. Being able to spend time with Yi Jiao without having to worry about how that might be used against his father has also greatly helped his mood.

There is also the light that shone on him in the Dead Plains. While it might have shown a clear predilection for Feng Hao, that doesn’t mean the light did nothing to him. However, Feng Zhi would rather not think of that light because it will just make him worry about Feng Hao.

Regardless, if his growth is simply the result of external factors, doesn’t that mean he actually hasn’t grown at all?

Feng Zhi roars.

An orb of golden flame expands around him, leaving nothing but a smoldering crater behind. The faces of many annoying disciples flash through Feng Zhi’s mind. They have all grown by leaps and bounds. What were once simply annoyances have grown worryingly close to his level.

Feng Zhi dashes into the largest creature nearby. His body becomes an arrow blazing across the battlefield.

Destruction.

The word echoes in his head. He remembers his father’s teachings. He remembers his training.

It does nothing to bring him peace.

~~~

It is the third time.

Bai Wen narrows her eyes behind her veil as she flies around one of the giant monsters. A wave of her hand covers the creature in ice. The one called Bright Sword drops and slices it in half. His arm blurs; a second later, those two slices become two thousand.

For a moment, their eyes meet. Bright Sword grins before quickly dashing ahead, Qing Jin flailing on his back.

The man is not normal.

Three times, Bai Wen has tried to take young Qing Jin away from him, and three times, she has failed. All three times, Bai Wen had been certain Bright Sword had been distracted, but the instant her technique began to take shape, Bright Sword moved out of the way. His movements are too precise, too perfect, for her to dismiss this as a coincidence.

He is reading her.

Despite having to focus on the many monsters around them while making sure not to accidentally hurt his allies, Bright Sword is managing to keep track of her movements. That is far beyond the level of any other Heaven Realm cultivator Bai Wen has met in this country.

What is someone of such caliber doing here? Why work for someone like Murong Bang? There is no possible way Murong Bang could raise someone like him, not when the rest of his cultivators are so obviously incomplete.

Bai Wen frowns as she brings her hands together, immediately trapping over a thousand enemies in ice. Regeneration does not matter if they’re all immobile.

“Very impressive,” Bright Sword says, standing atop one of the larger frozen creatures. “One wonders why you did not just do that from the start.”

Bai Wen frowns at Bright Sword. She wanted to use the chaos from the fight to separate him from Qing Jin. However, that has clearly not worked, so there’s no point in wasting any more time.

Regardless, an unknown like Bright Sword cannot be allowed to keep young Qing Jin.

Putting aside his strategic importance to the Divine Frozen Palace–To have obtained the blood of one of the 108 without meaning to. Truly, her master’s rival is unfathomable–young Qing Jin is Xiao Shuang’s husband. Xiau Shuang is someone she treasures like a little sister, so her husband is obviously family as well.

Besides, he’s such a nice and proper young man. That shouldn’t be a rarity among the most talented, but it is. Bai Wen approves of him.

It wouldn’t be just if someone like that were to be left in the hands of unscrupulous others.

“Qing Jin!”

A minute frown forms on her lips as another one of the giant creatures approaches them, shouting Qing Jin’s name for everyone to hear. While she couldn’t expect the one they called the Fleshcrafter to control every single one of his creations individually, even with the aid of soul fragments, it is rather odd that he isn’t exerting better control over the larger creatures as those represent a larger investment.

It’s almost as if his focus is somewhere else.

“I will take this one,” Bright Sword says as he appears next to her and dashes forward.

It takes Bai Wen exactly a thousandth of a second to begin moving after that. Not because she’s slow, but rather because Bright Sword managed to get a mere feet away from her, and she somehow did not notice it.

That’s worrying.

Very worrying.

Bai Wen is not just a cultivator at the peak of the Heaven Realm. She’s someone who could have stepped into the Renegade Realm if she wanted a long time ago. Only prudence has kept her where she is. Until she’s certain she can reach the Emperor Realm, she will not take a step forward.

For someone to be able to sneak on her, in the middle of a battle no less, with such seeming ease is not normal.

Bright Sword slices the giant without even drawing the sword at his side. His technique is reminiscent of the young boy Qing Jin fought. If so, Bright Sword’s influence explains how someone so young could have such a strong grasp on his Dao despite his circumstances.

It does not explain–

Bai Wen blinks.

“What is the meaning of this?” She asks as she looks around in confusion.

Shadows.

Dozens of black-cloaked figures suddenly appear all around them as if they had emerged from the shadows under their feet. A closer look reveals them to be man-sized puppets made of wood and metal. They are spread out all over the battlefield, surprising the various soldiers still fighting.

The puppets begin moving.

Their speed and precision are beyond any other puppet Bai Wen has ever seen. She prepares to fight them but quickly realizes they are only attacking the Fleschrrafter’s creatures.

Were they reinforcements? If so, from whom?

No, more importantly…

“Where are you doing?” She shouts as flies after Bright Sword. A single moment of distraction allowed the cultivator to get nearly half a mile a lead on her.

“If those things are fighting on our side, there’s no need to waste more time, is there?” Bright Sword shouts as he slices everything in his path. Bai Wen’s eyes widen as she realizes what he’s after.

He’s using the confusion caused by the puppets to go directly to the palace gates!

“You know what they are?” She asks, increasing her flight speed to catch up to him.

“How would I?” He answers.

“This is not time to play games!”

Bright Sword laughs.

“Everything is a game,” he answers. “The only issue is whether one finds more enjoyment being a player or a piece.”

He treats the matter as trivial, but there is nothing trivial about what he is doing. General He Bin is in the Storm Dragon Palace. To break into the palace is to challenge him. That is why, of the many cultivators fighting, it is only them who are heading for the palace. To go in without one of the generals is foolishness itself.

Bai Wen should retreat. Her master would certainly advise her to do so. After all, young Qing Jin would be safe no matter what.

A single creature rises from the ground to block their way. Perhaps a last guardian created by the Fleshcrafter.

Bai Wen freezes him.

Bright Sword slices him.

The palace gates break.

They dash in.

~~~