Compliance Is Mandatory.

  Everyone within 100 kilometers heard the clap of thunder that seemed to rend the sky asunder.

  Jianrong, along with everyone in the house, ran outside.

  The sky was crystal-clear blue, with wispy clouds lazily moving high above.

  But below that were dark shapes: several black ships, the size of a city block, with weapons visible and arrays that glowed with ghostly light.

  Everyone looked up in shock, then the thunder struck again as a Pagoda appeared from nowhere.

  Jianrong, like everyone else, had their eyes glued to the sky when they realized people were falling.

  For a moment, her heart clenched in fear for them.

  Not a few, dozens who then lit up the sky with light as they rode swords downward at a dizzying speed.

  From the pagoda, more people flew down on clouds.

  Jianrong was shocked, alarmed, and stunned.

  Then six distinct Spirit Senses lanced downward and found Rong, and a deep fear gripped her.

  They were over half a kilometer away, which made all of those Spirit Senses a Nascent Souls.

  Somewhere deep inside, something bared its fangs; its amber eyes flashed.

  “Giving up means death for the pack, fight!”

  “SHEPARD!” She screamed

  Then she crouched as her brother appeared, grabbing at everyone to jump back to the Bloom.

  Feng screamed something.

  Time dilated as her Core moved faster than ever before, her mind pressing its demand to the limit.

  Her hand touched her friend hiding in her robe, and he disappeared.

  Jianrong’s Aura roiled around her as it compressed and then condensed as Qi flowed into it.

  “DAR CONTRACT!” She shouted.

  Then she fell upwards, racing to meet the enemy.

  The elites, looking at the competition, did not understand what was happening.

  They were sent to secure a cultivator who had rung Jade Mountain’s alarms not once, but twice.

  Home of the 9 Heavens Central Trial Tower.

  People within the Divine Cloud Sect had secured their own benefit by selling information, and now it was a gold rush to see who collected it first.

  Jianrong did not think beyond the sky was raining enemies.

  She prayed her loved ones were safe because just the pressure these people could release would kill all of them.

  Qin Renshu, Elder of the Celestial War Doctrine Sect, was a bear of a man.

  He wore heavy armor and used a heavy Dao sword.

  He had been a Nascent Soul for over eighty years.

  But he had never had someone race to meet him in battle.

  People avoided the man because facing him would tempt fate.

  Rong’s eyes found him and sparkled. “Perfect.”

  Then a golden fox veered sharply and hit Qin Renshu at full speed.

  The world stopped, because it was not the fox that gave ground.

  Qin Renshu, Elder of the Celestial War Doctrine, had been blown away and now tumbled through the air, making everyone slow to see what was happening.

  Then, impossibly, the Core Formation warrior's body rotated her tail, flexing and aiming.

  Behind her, as air rushed toward it, then burst away from it, acting as a flight vector control.

  She pursued the man.

  Then the world began to breathe again.

  The only difference was now they were pursuing a prize who was fighting one of their own, as if her life depended on it.

  “DIE!” Jianrong screamed as her fist smashed into the Qi shield.

  Instead of being held at bay as she had been with Ning Ya, the man's shield quickly dimmed.

  They had learned that the more Qi primed into their blows, the more damage they dealt.

  Qin Renshu roared and released his full Aura as a crushing pressure enveloped friend and competition alike.

  ENDLESS NIGHT

  Darkness pulsed outward for five meters, pure entropy consuming five percent of her reserves and, in turn, making the same amount of energy around her go from usable to unusable upon contact.

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  It erased her armor but shut off every single flying tool around her and devoured the man's Aura in an instant as two heartbeats passed.

  Three Nascent Souls realized they could not connect to the world, as they were freely falling to their deaths.

  Then it was light again, and people could see Jianrong had drawn first blood, her fist smashing into the man’s face repeatedly, as her other hand locked onto him as they spun in the sky.

  Elder Wang of the Azure Ascendant Court was confused as he tumbled through the air downward. “My sword is fine. My Qi is fine. Why did the world stop holding me!?” his mind screamed in alarm.

  Qin Renshu, regarded as the Sect's strongest physical specimen, grabbed Jianrong with both of his huge hands and prepared to toss her away when he felt his connection to the world return.

  He pressed all his willpower into flight.

  Then a searing pain lanced through his arms as Jianrong’s claws bit into the armor that had no Qi flowing through it,

  The chain mail couldn’t help against her monstrous strength, crushing his flesh.

  His iron resolve dissolved in the face of her feral smile as he realized she planned on taking him with her to the afterlife.

  Qin screamed for help, and Jianrong's eyes practically glowed with excitement.

  He realized she was waiting to catch all of them in her area of effect.

  With a shout of defiance, he burned Qi and moved them sharply to the side.

  The next moment, they hit water, and she was blown off him, her claws tearing his armor and shredding flesh.

  The world tumbled as Qin rotated, then poured Qi into flight, launching him upward and onto land as people milled about over the river, looking for the woman.

  Spirit Sense enveloped the entire area as Qin’s Aura made people scream then collapse in the city.

  The next moment, Jianrong pierced out of the river, within a construct shaped like a trout.

  There was a moment of shock.

  Nascent Souls in the sky moved to land, not wanting to be like Qin.

  Several Auras unfolded and overlapped with the fish that was mid-air in pursuit of Qin, who had turned and was leaping away.

  ENDLESS NIGHT!

  The water fell away.

  Qin’s upward movement stopped, and he fell earthward.

  All the Aura around them was consumed like oil in a fire.

  The Cultivators flinched, feeling a large portion of their Qi drain away under the attempted suppression.

  The elder's hand moved to his sword as he fell. Qin knew she was coming for him.

  Like a shark that had chosen its prey, she would not let him go, he felt in his Soul.

  Light returned, and she was on top of him as fox features were plain to see now that her outer garments had been destroyed.

  In her right hand was a heavy knife, on her face was a smile, and eyes were only for him.

  He moved to counter when his feet hit the ground hard under his mass and momentum,.

  Then he was falling, his mind was trying to regulate too many actions without so much of what made him so capable.

  His connection to the world and Aura.

  Her blade was racing down a half step faster than Qin could move when a Qi blast struck the woman from the side.

  Like a rogue wave, her body folded over it, sending her into a house that partially collapsed under the blast and its passenger.

  Qin’s companion moved to his side, and no one had words.

  “She…thinks this is a fight to the death!” Qin said, surprising himself at the realization that she saw them as enemies.

  Two long gold eyes opened in the darkness of the house.

  Every single Sect member could see her form clearly with Spirit Sense; she was curled in a ball, and around her was a swirling mass of Qi that had taken form.

  No one had experience with such a spell.

  “Suppress her FIRST!” Qin shouted,

  Grand Elder Zhou of the Azure Ascendant Court nodded. “Agreed, help our friends, and we can work this out after!”

  A crimson three-meter-tall fox exited the house in a blur.

  Rong could not know who and when the Nascent Souls would use their Qi strike, but she knew how to duck and weave.

  Instead of a straight line, the fox moved in a forward zigzag at a speed that made each Nascent Soul give pause, because she was current at their level.

  Wave after wave raced forward, destroying everything within fifty meters.

  “TOGETHER!” Zhou shouted.

  A terrifying wave unfolded and filled the entire area in front of the sect members.

  Rong had no other recourse.

  The armor lost its connection to her and exploded outward, striking the Qi wave and getting crushed.

  ENDLESS NIGHT!

  Darkness consumed forty thousand joules of energy, turning it useless, but it still wasn’t enough.

  The wave struck with the force of a charging bull and sent her tumbling through the air like a doll tossed by an angry child.

  Jianrong hit the ground hard and slid all around her people were screaming and crying.

  She lay there for a moment just catching her breath.

  She had already used fifteen percent of her reserves.

  But more importantly, it didn’t matter because the force she faced was overwhelming.

  A parchment fell near her, and she caught it. It had one word.

  “Almost!”

  Rong’s eyes turned bloodshot.

  Nodding her head, she stood up while loosening her neck as her aura unfolded once more and collapsed onto her body.

  Her knife was lost somewhere.

  With a chuckle, her hand reached out, and Lei Zhenyu, the Heavy Dao Sabre, appeared in her hand.

  “INVADER SWINE!” She shouted loud enough that the sound echoed across the city.

  “Who will face me!”

  “I am Jianrong Dar Bloodforge,

  Daughter of Nadia Bloodforge!

  Protector of the Empress of Tianrelion!

  Face me!”

  With every word, she strode forward to face her enemies, and with every step, her sword gave off a ringing noise that grew in intensity as her power flowed through it.

  Qin glanced at Zhou, who nodded.

  “I Qin Renshu,

  Elder of the Celestial War Doctrine

  General of the 2nd Army, accept your challenge!”

  Jianrong moved toward him as everyone else around them spread out.

  She couldn’t see it, but she felt it; the air was locking them in place.

  Her Qi was sluggish.

  The closer she got to Qin, the more she realized just how big he was.

  Her eyes moved to her blade. “Do your best, I will fix the damage.”

  Both used the same weapon; the difference was in style.

  Qin moved with a testing blow.

  Jianrong went full send.

  Qin realized once more that her size was deceptive, as his fast, light blow was blown away by an impossible power that was not from a Qi pulse.

  Zhou and the others watched, and the women moved so close their feet touched from time to time.

  Qin size was typically an advantage.

  He had great physical strength built through martial training and hardship.

  His reach was immense as he was two meters tall; he struck others while they were not within reach to hit him.

  He was a career soldier; he did not dance, he moved with efficiency.

  But the fox girl subverted all of that.

  Her more petite frame seemed to move within his shadow, not through magic but by reading body position.

  Each one of his attacks required foot position.

  She knew that and knew what he could and could not do.

  By never leaving his shadow, she was always in place to strike, while he was always retreating to strike.

  Finally, his decisive moves were powerful yet simple, and she had the strength to match his.

  Their weapons wailed as she deflected his every blow while her legs snapped out against his calves and knees.

  Qin’s eyes moved to Zhou, who ordered the suppression to increase, turning Rongs Qi into mud in her meridians.

  Jianrong suddenly laughed.

  “Come, bring your suppression talismans, you nets! Come! I will fight you bare-handed with claw and tooth!” she shouted, accelerating her attacks, making Qin move to simply generate a Qi Shield, since her enemy was under the same suppression she was.

  Then something hit the ground.

  It was an elegant scroll with a scroll seal.

  Rong's body weaved, her blade came at him at a difficult angle.

  Qin moved his blade to block, its length against his body.

  The next moment, the blow never landed; instead, her body exploded towards him in a tight spin, followed by her heel slamming into his sword arm, sending him stumbling back as she was braced for a completely different attack.

  The Elders watched in confusion as Qin took two steps back and reset his stance.

  But the fox girl's sword disappeared, and she picked up a scroll, slid her thumb across her fang, drawing blood.

  Then the scroll unfurled, and there was a line she slid her blood across.

  The parchment flashed with a sharp light

  Jianrong felt a sharp twinge as she signed the contract in blood.

  “I yield,” Rong said simply and lay down.

  Looking up, she saw three people floating downward toward her.

  “Greetings, friends, welcome to Tianrelion. I am Commander Pei Zongqiu, Divine Cloud Sects, Southern Fourth district, 4th Expeditionary force. I see you have met our beloved disciple, Jianrong, whose family has been invaluable in arranging an arrangement we were both happy with.

  As you can see, she is very adept and dedicated to public safety. As a mandated protector of the former Empress, she is loyal and trustworthy.

  Why don’t we adjourn to more appropriate accommodations and discuss the possibility of her joining one of your prestigious sects that could nurture her abilities much better than we could?

  You might have noticed… she has no Arts, and no Spells, the perfect slate to build from, and if may say…her presentation allows for wherever she represents you…to be memorable.” Commander Pei could sell ice to people stranded on an iceberg.

  The sky erupted with thunder once more as more ships arrived.

  Jianrong looked up then to Feng, who came running to her.

  He smiled as he ran, then helped her up.

  “AHAHA, you raced upward, next thing I know, your mother and Father appeared with a dozen elders to look at the contract!”

  Rong nodded. “Yeah…that is my family.” She said as if it were obvious, looking down at the ground.

  “Do you know who you fought?” Feng gushed in excitement.

  Rong looked at him, then to the large man, then bowed low. “Excellency, thank you for your restraint against this little one.”

  The man considered her, then nodded.

  Rong looked at Feng, “Be useful, help me find my knife.