The forest was silent, save for the ragged, hitching breath of the victor. From the shadows of the ancient trees, Bi Kan had watched the tragedy unfold like a slow-motion nightmare.

  He had waited too long. He had calculated the odds, weighed the risks of revealing his trump card, and in that hesitation, Ma Niu had died.

  And then, Hao Xua had turned his blade on Ying Xia.

  Bi Kan stood over the mangled, unrecognizable ruin that was once Hao Xua. A single, heavy drop of blood fell from his fingertip, landing on the corpse’s shattered face with a soft plip.

  "I let it all happen," he whispered, the words tasting like ash in his mouth.

  His hand trembled, the weight of the black blade suddenly unbearable, as if it carried the mass of a mountain rather than mere steel.

  The adrenaline that had fueled his brutal execution of the swordsman evaporated, leaving behind a crushing fatigue that threatened to buckle his knees.

  Yet, he forced his legs to lock. He could not pass out. Not here. Not now.

  He focused his will inward. With a flicker of thought, the black blade dissolved into motes of dark energy, vanishing from his grip and returning to the suspended animation of his Soul Sea.

  All my training, he thought, his mind a cauldron of self-loathing.

  That incomplete charging technique, the alchemy, the plans... was it all for nothing if I couldn't save them?

  Slowly, painfully, Bi Kan dropped to his knees and crawled towards the tree where Ying Xia lay slumped.

  Her face was pale, bruised, and streaked with grime.

  He reached out, his shivering hands gently cupping her shoulders as he pulled her limp form into his arms.

  "I'm... sorry..." He gritted his teeth so hard his jaw ached, fighting back the sting of tears that threatened to blur his vision.

  "I could have ended it immediately. If I had just pulled out the dark blade the moment he stepped forward... you wouldn't be like this. I'm sorry, Xia!"

  The guilt unbearable, a cold stone in his gut. He felt pathetic. He had arrogantly assumed he could win with his own strength, that he could manage the situation without revealing his secrets.

  Ma Niu’s death was a burden he could perhaps rationalize, the man was an assassin, after all, but Ying Xia? She was innocent in this web of vengeance.

  Bi Kan’s eyes slowly drifted away from Xia, trailing across the disturbed earth to the lifeless body of Ma Niu.

  The disciple's face was smeared with dirt and blood, his eyes staring vacantly at the canopy.

  "Despite my hate for you," Bi Kan murmured, his voice hollow,

  "you fought bravely. And I let you die."

  He shook his head, forcing the grief aside for the sake of the living.

  He gently propped Xia back against the tree, ensuring she was stable, before dragging his exhausted body towards the unconscious form of Gu Moyu.

  "There's got to be something..." he muttered, his hands rummaging roughly through Gu Moyu's torn robes.

  "A strategist always keeps a backup."

  His fingers brushed against a small, hard object. He pulled it out—a small wooden box. Inside sat a single, radiating pill. It wasn't high grade, but the medicinal aroma was unmistakable.

  A healing pill.

  Bi Kan scrambled back to Ying Xia. carefully, he tilted her head back and placed the pill between her lips, massaging her throat to help her swallow.

  "Be well," he whispered, brushing a stray lock of pink hair from her forehead. "I'll get you back... to the sect."

  He watched her chest rise and fall, the rhythm slightly more steady as the medicine began its work.

  A dark thought crept into his mind, insidious and sharp.

  I let her get hurt because of my pride. Because of my fear of being exposed. His frown deepened, etching lines of worry into his youthful face.

  You saw it, didn't you, Xia? Before you passed out... you saw the blade.

  Do you hate me now? Do you think I don't care for you because I waited so long?

  He pushed the doubts down, burying them deep within.

  He hoisted Ying Xia onto his back, her weight a heavy, tangible reminder of his failure.

  He stood up, his legs shaking but holding.

  "I'm so pathetic."

  Bi Kan turned his gaze one last time to Gu Moyu.

  The strategist lay defenseless, his chest rising and falling in the deep sleep of the unconscious.

  Bi Kan’s right arm twitched. His hand moved downwards through the empty air, mimicking a sharp, diagonal slash.

  Should I just kill him?

  The thought was seductive in its simplicity.

  No one would blame me anyways. They were my assassins.

  They hunted me. I could simply say the bandits killed them both, and I barely escaped with Xia.

  His eyes narrowed, the warmth draining from them until they were as cold as the abyss within his Soul Sea. No one would know.

  "Ma Niu, Gu Moyu," he whispered to the silent forest, his voice devoid of pity.

  "You've served your time with me well. You bought me time. You fought my enemies."

  His hand lingered in the air, the invisible blade hovering over Gu Moyu's neck.

  "But, to me, you're nothing."

  The battlefield was a maelstrom of desperate, clashing wills. Wei Tiexuan, a precision instrument in a clumsy brawl, sent another arc of green energy scything through the air. It carved through friend and foe alike, forcing an Inner Disciple to dive out of its path and a charging slave to stumble, his momentum broken.

  "This rabble is getting in the way," Xuan spat, his voice a low growl of pure, arrogant frustration.

  From across the churning sea of bodies, Hao Fu met his gaze, a wide, bloody grin splitting his face. "Are you afraid of your fellow brothers dying?" he bellowed, his voice a thunderclap that cut through the chaos.

  "Afraid?" Xuan scoffed, the sound sharp and dismissive. "I just don't want to have to face the repercussions of their families. Their deaths would be an inconvenience, a stain on my reputation."

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  With a single, contemptuous slash, Xuan’s blade cut a deep furrow into the earth. The ground erupted in a thick, choking cloud of dust and debris, a temporary shroud that obscured the entire section of the battlefield. When the dust swirled, Xuan was gone from his spot, reappearing in a flicker of motion directly beside Hao Fu.

  "I asked nicely," he whispered, his voice a silken threat. "So I'll force us into a new location."

  He didn't use the edge of his blade, but the flat, delivering a powerful back-handed slash that was more a concussive blast than a cut. The impact sent Hao Fu hurtling backwards like a stone from a catapult, his massive frame crashing through the trees hundreds of meters away. Xuan followed without a sound, a phantom of motion, his own blade already singing through the air.

  "Whispering Wind Cuts of the Jaded Way!"

  A dozen green slices of pure energy streaked through the forest, each one carving a fresh, bloody line across Hao Fu’s body as he struggled to regain his footing. "This brat's techniques are troublesome!" he roared, the pain only serving to fuel his rage. He finally came to a stop, his feet planting themselves with a ground-shattering stomp that made the very trees around him bend and groan.

  "I'll tear you to pieces!"

  His muscles grew denser, tighter, the veins on his arms and neck bulging like thick ropes as he tempered his body to its absolute peak. "AGH!!!!!" A guttural roar of pure, unadulterated power erupted from him, a shockwave of sound that vibrated in Xuan’s very bones.

  Wei Tiexuan simply smirked. "You aren't worthy of seeing me at the peak of my strength," he drawled, his own body shimmering as he tempered it to a mere fifty percent of its capacity. "You are far too weak."

  The insult was the final spark. With a bellow that shook the field, Hao Fu launched himself forward, a living avalanche of vengeance, his entire body a weapon aimed to decimate his opponent.

  "Perfect," Xuan whispered, his eyes gleaming with a cold, predatory light. "You're practically walking through death's doors!"

  He raised his blade, its polished surface a calm, still mirror in the heart of the storm. He waited. The distance closed. The world seemed to slow, the roar of Hao Fu’s charge fading into a distant hum.

  Any closer now…

  A few milliseconds passed, an eternity in a battle between experts. Hao Fu entered the zone of death.

  Xuan’s blade came down.

  SHWING!

  The sound was clean, a single, final note in the symphony of violence. Wei Tiexuan stood unmoving as the two halves of what was once Hao Fu slid past him, landing with a wet, final thud in a rapidly spreading pool of their own blood.

  With a flick of his wrist, Xuan wiped the blood from his blade before sheathing it away with a soft, final TCHUK!.

  "Now," he said to the silent, watching forest, his voice calm and steady as he turned back towards the distant sounds of battle. "Time to end this."

  He tempered his body once again, this time to its utmost peak, a silent acknowledgment of the true threat that still remained.

  "Hao Yu, was it?" he murmured, a cold smile touching his lips as he began to run, a blur of motion returning to the fray. "Your death nears."

  Sima Danxie was a grotesque pincushion of amethyst crystal, the jagged spikes protruding from his arms and chest a testament to Hao Yu’s brutal power. Across from him, Hao Yifeng stood in a state of relative health, a thin trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth the only sign of the battle's toll.

  "Keep up, red-haired bastard," Yifeng drawled, his voice a mocking caress. "I can't kill him alone."

  Danxie grit his teeth, the pain a white-hot fire in his veins. "That's rich coming from you," he snarled, spitting a glob of bloody saliva onto the war-torn earth. "I don't see you dealing any fatal damage other than that gaping hole."

  Hao Yu stood tall, a wounded but unbroken titan. His decades of experience and his more thoroughly tempered body were a formidable wall against their youthful onslaught. "Stop this now, son," he coughed, the words a strained plea. "You can still be forgiven."

  "You're still suggesting that, old man? You truly do love me!" Yifeng threw his head back, his laughter a hysterical, chilling sound that grated on the very air. "Unfortunately, I grew tired of being a bandit, father, which is why I staged for the destruction of it! I am the embodiment of everything you hate!"

  Sima Danxie’s eye twitched. I-Is he really this smart?! Or just insane?! Why is he trying to get us killed by enraging him further!

  "You…" Hao Yu’s voice was a low growl that seemed to come from the very bedrock of the earth. He exploded into motion, his purple-spiked arm a blur as it slashed through the air, forcing Yifeng into a desperate, weaving dance of evasion.

  "Your moves are predictable once you get the hang of it," Yifeng taunted, his feet light as he slipped under a devastating swing. "You may be stronger than me, but you're—"

  Hao Yu’s arm plunged deep into the earth where his son had been a moment before. Yifeng, having launched himself into the air, was already descending, his hand a rigid blade aimed for his father’s neck. "But I'm far better!"

  Suddenly, Hao Yu’s other arm convulsed. With a grotesque, tearing sound, it erupted into a second, massive spike mace, which he thrust upwards with impossible speed. It pierced Yifeng's chest completely.

  "No way!" Yifeng coughed, a fine crimson mist erupting from his lips.

  "Yifeng!" Sima Danxie’s shocked shout was lost in the chaos.

  Slowly, deliberately, Hao Yu lifted his son’s impaled body high into the air. "How utterly useless, boy," he rasped, his voice thick with a mixture of pain and disappointed fury. "You're smart, but not smart enough. Just because you're my son doesn't mean I'll hesitate to punish you."

  Yifeng simply smiled, a bloody, manic grin. "Then kill me!" he laughed, the sound a defiant, unhinged cackle.

  From the height of heaven, a new player descended. "Two birds, one stone," Wei Tiexuan whispered, his blade a silver streak of judgment.

  SWING!

  The blade struck Hao Yu’s amethyst-crystalized arm, not to sever, but to shatter. Cracks spiderwebbed across the surface, the potent pulse of power within fading with a low groan. In that single, critical moment of vulnerability, Yifeng’s hand, no longer impaled, reached his father's neck.

  "I win," he grinned.

  The combined assault was devastating. The peak of Xuan's slash and the internal agony of Yifeng’s gambit sent a universe of pain through Hao Yu, sending him stumbling back.

  SHBWOOM!

  A figure was sent hurtling across the battlefield, a streak of white and gray that tumbled through the air before crashing into the dirt with a jarring thud. Hao Yifeng pushed himself up, a wide, bloody smile plastered on his face, a testament to the brutal force of his father’s last blow.

  From across the clearing, Sima Danxie saw his opening. With a roar that tore from his very soul, he stomped his foot, the ground cracking under the force of his preparation. "Yifeng," he panted, his body tempering to its absolute peak, a crimson inferno against the gloom, "you better catch me as I fall." He shot forward, a red comet of pure, unadulterated power, his speed absolute. As the dust of the battlefield swirled around him, Hao Yu’s ruined form came into view—spikes encircled his neck, his left arm was shattered, and his entire body was a canvas of bleeding wounds. He looked up and braced himself for the final, endless barrage.

  "DIE! Volcanic Barrage!"

  Danxie became a maelstrom of crimson fists, each impact a small explosion that tore chunks of flesh from Hao Yu’s body. The final blow was a cataclysmic blast that sent a shockwave ripping through the battlefield. From within the swirling dust cloud, Wei Tiexuan slowly rose, staring at his blade. A single, hairline crack marred its perfect surface. "Did that scum actually manage to break my blade..?" It shattered completely, dissolving into a thousand glittering shards. Xuan’s eyes widened, a flicker of pure rage in their depths. "Bastard!"

  Sima Danxie was thrown from the heart of the explosion, his own body battered and broken, a gaping hole now torn through his chest. "Fuck…" he gasped, his vision blurring as he fell. "So you will catch me, bastard."

  Yifeng simply dashed past his collapsing form. "As if I'd do that," he sneered, his voice a silken whisper of betrayal. "You don't get to order me around."

  He rushed towards his father, who was now a riddled, bleeding ruin. Yifeng pulsed all of his Qi into his own right arm, a manic grin plastered on his face. "I can do that as well, FATHER?!" Slowly, a disfigured, incomplete spike mace of purple aura formed around his arm. It was a crude, pathetic imitation of his father’s power, and yet, it was enough.

  It shot through Hao Yu’s chest, a final, mocking act of patricide.

  "It's over."

  Hao Yifeng grinned, a wide, bloody expression of pure, triumphant finality as he stared down at his father's ruined form. The incomplete, disfigured spike of purple Qi slowly dissipated from his arm, leaving only the gaping, cauterized wound in Hao Yu's chest.

  Hao Yu’s eyes, which had been burning with a final, defiant rage, slowly began to prickle with tears. The decades of ambition, of cruelty, of building an empire on the suffering of others—it all fell away, leaving only the ghost of a boy who had been wronged long ago.

  "It… really wasn't my fault… big… sis…" he whispered, his voice a choked, broken thing.

  Yifeng’s manic smile curved downwards, his features hardening into a mask of pure, cold disgust. "Pathetic, dad," he spat, the word an insult laced with a lifetime of resentment. With a final, contemptuous motion, he pulled his arm free. Hao Yu crashed against the floor, a broken titan bleeding out on the war-torn earth. His crystalized arm, the symbol of his power, shattered completely, dissolving into a fine, glittering dust that was carried away on the wind.

  The world dissolved, A boy's pressed into the dirt of a grassy field. A figure in fine robes stood on his back, the weight a crushing, absolute authority.

  "Ugh, let go of me!" the younger Hao Yu had screamed, his voice cracking with a mixture of rage and terror.

  The man had simply shaken his head, slamming another vicious kick into the boy's spine. "AGH!"

  Hao Yu’s small hands gripped the very earth, his eyes bloodshot, his entire world dominated by the figure standing just a few feet away—a girl, older than he was, her expression cold and unreadable.

  "S-Save me…" he had whispered, his tears tracing paths through the dirt on his cheeks.

  "Save you?" she had replied, her voice devoid of all pity. "This was your own undoing. Serve your punishment."

  She had turned her back on him then, her figure slowly fading into the background of his memory.

  "This is what you deserve, Hao Yu."

  The memory faded into the final, absolute darkness of death. A single, black fly buzzed lazily in the sudden quiet of the battlefield, landing on Hao Yu's lifeless, open eye and crawling underneath the lid. Hao Yifeng looked down at the corpse, his expression one of pure, unadulterated disdain.

  A calm voice cut through the silence. Wei Tiexuan, his own peerless blade now a shattered ruin, picked up a simple, short blade from a fallen bandit, testing its weight in his hand.

  "This will do," he said, his eyes, cold and sharp as the steel he now held, focusing on Yifeng.

  "Your time has come as well." The blade sharply points at Yifeng

  "Prepare to die, scum."