~~~

“You were both reckless,” Liu Jin tells Pan Qiu and Khong Hu. “Following Senior Brother Guo was understandable. One could argue it is the reason you’re alive. Still, eating the meat of an Earth Realm dragon was too dangerous. You are lucky your meridians weren’t damaged irrevocably.”

“That was a possibility?!” Pan Qiu shouts. “I thought internal damage was the more likely negative outcome.”

“Damage to your meridians is internal damage,” Liu Jin points out. “Though you are right in that damage to your other organs, starting with your stomach, would have been the most likely scenario.”

Left unsaid is that receiving too much internal damage would have left them too damaged to handle the ensuing breakthrough. They are lucky that was not the case.

“Even so, make sure to visit the Medical Pavillion when we return. You need a thorough checkup. I’d do it right now if I could.”

“Ah, to be lectured by a junior.” Khong Hu sighs and shakes his head. “No, I suppose there is nothing I can say right now.”

“I did not mean to lecture Senior Brother Khong,” Liu Jin says. “You and Senior Brother Guo were of great help towards the end, and-”

“No, Brother Jin.” Khong Hu holds out his hand. “There is no need to mind your words. On this matter, I was most assuredly unhelpful. I have no ground to stand on.”

“I beg to differ!” an exasperated Pan Qiu shouts. “Just look at him!”

He waves his hand at Liu Jin’s form.

His bedridden, heavily-bandaged form.

Liu Jin sustained so many injuries during the battle that, even after the worst of them were healed by the light, he was not placed with other wounded disciples. Instead, a new room was procured for him and one other so they could be given preferential care.

“He’s got no right to lecture anyone about being reckless!” Pan Qiu continues. “That thing over there only looks human. He is a monster who’s surely cultivated the Dao of recklessness.”

Liu Jin looks at Pan Qiu. “You’re surprisingly open with your thoughts now.”

“It is because you are bedridden,” Pan Qiu replies shamelessly.

“Mind your words,” Khong Hu tells him. “Being honest about your cravenness does not make it acceptable. Brother Jin is like he is because of his many great deeds. While I wish he had exercised more caution, his contributions are undeniable. If we compare ourselves to him, it is obvious who is lacking.”

“Senior Brother, please. You praise me too much.” Liu Jin sighs. His head sinks into the pillows Lu Mei somehow procured for him. “In the end, we were all saved by someone else.”

“That might be so.” The man in the bed next to him says. It seems they have woken up Senior Brother Guo with their talking. “Regardless, the only reason that Renegade appeared is because of you.”

Guo stares at the ceiling. His arms are crossed over his broad chest, and a blanket covers his body. Despite that, it is impossible to miss his missing limbs.

“We’d all be dead otherwise…”

“What did you talk about?” Pan Qiu suddenly asks Liu Jin. “We were too far away to overhear, but whatever it is that makes a Renegade act has to be important.”

“That is…”

“None of your business,” Lu Mei finishes for him as she abruptly enters the room. “Jin is still recovering, and he has no time to deal with any of your nonsense. You two shouldn’t even be here.”

“We were allowed to visit!” Pan Qiu protests.

“A mistake made by stupid people,” Lu Mei counters. Liu Jin doesn’t doubt the disciples who let them in are going to hear it from her later.

“Very well,” Khong Hu says, rising from his seat. “We shall leave Brother Jin to recover.”

“You are just going to obey her?” Pan Qiu asks.

Khong Hu does not reply. He merely offers a nod to Liu Jin and exits the room, leaving Pan Qiu alone under Lu Mei’s fierce glare. The older disciple has several grudges against Lu Mei, but he cannot find the courage to defy her. He scurries away with his tail between his legs.

“You should not be entertaining them. You are nowhere near recovered enough,” Lu Mei tells him.

“It was just a short conversation. There is nothing wrong with that.” After a pause, he adds, “I am a doctor, you know? I know how serious my wounds are.”

“I won’t claim to be remotely close to your skill, but I am not completely ignorant. The Red Sky Pavilion has produced some of the best healers on the continent. More importantly, I have working eyes!” She waves her arm at his prone form. “You are not well. Not even remotely. You are like a piece of paper left outside during a storm that is somehow still whole.”

Liu Jin laughs but breaks into coughs, further proving Lu Mei’s point. She huffs and leaves in a hurry, likely to yell at the poor disciples who let the other two get in.

“You are a lucky man,” Senior Brother Guo tells him.

“I think that’s the first time anyone has said that to me.”

Senior Brother Guo laughs in reply, and Liu Jin wishes he could join him. Unfortunately, he cannot help the way his eyes fall on Senior Brother Guo’s missing legs.

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“There is nothing you could have done,” Senior Brother Guo tells him, not having failed to notice his gaze.

“I know.”

That makes it worse.

Senior Brother Guo is a cultivator in the Earth Realm. Though he cannot reconstruct his body completely like those who have ascended to the Heaven Realm, regenerating a missing limb is not impossible. Even a cultivator in the First Level of the Earth Realm should be able to recover an arm if given enough time. For someone like Senior Brother Guo, even taking his tiredness into account, it should only take him several hours.

Unfortunately, Xun Huwen’s Dao is the Dao of the Destruction. Damage done by him is not so easily mended. Not when he bothers to try. Senior Brother Guo’s legs will not grow back. Liu Jin found that out when he tried to treat Senior Brother Guo despite his feeble condition and met failure.

“It is not as bad as it seems,” Senior Brother Guo says. “I never cared much for my legs. My ankles were always too weak, you see. Women do not like a man with weak ankles.”

Liu Jin snorts before he can stop himself.

“Better,” Senior Brother Guo says. “There is really nothing to be sad about. I will be given prosthetics when we return. Forging is not an activity that requires much legwork, so it will not affect me much. Besides, this condition will only last until I reach the Heaven Realm.”

Liu Jin nods. The power of a Heaven Realm cultivator to completely reconstruct their body should allow Senior Brother Guo to bypass the lingering effects of Xun Huwen’s Dao.

“It is a mere stumbling block, junior. We are alive, and we are victorious. That is all that matters. Rest now. We need to recover for the trip back.”

First Lu Mei and now Senior Brother Guo. It seems people really want him to sleep. A yawn escapes his lips. He has only been awake for a little over an hour, yet his eyelids feel heavy already. Lacking even the energy to reply to Senior Brother Guo, Liu Jin drifts away from consciousness.

As he does, his mind goes back to the encounter with the Duke.

~~~

“I have not been in my homeland for over a hundred years.”

The Duke speaks in a remarkably soft voice, not bothering to put any Qi in his words. That means only Liu Jin, Lei Kong, and Senior Brother Guo are close enough to hear what he has to say. Or so Liu Jin thinks before noticing Senior Brother Guo has lost consciousness. Most would assume it is due to the shock of having lost his legs, yet that does not ring true.

The Duke likely used the force of his aura to make him succumb sometime before Xun Huwen left.

“I have met Renegades from the Storm Dragon Empire over the years, but they have never been the best conversation partners, especially during the past two decades,” the Duke continues. “I never had any reason to believe their mad ramblings were anything else. How could things have changed so much in a mere century? How could two emperors have been killed and one gone missing? That could not possibly be true. Then I met this one.”

The Duke points to Lei Kong, who has placed himself between Liu Jin and the Duke. Liu Jin appreciates the gesture but knows the True Realm Cultivator will make not a single difference should the Duke decide to kill him.

“Outrageous as his claims are, he has not lied to me. He lacks the skill to do so.”

A shadow falls over the Duke’s face. For a moment, the man does not radiate power or menace. He stands tall and proud, yet Liu Jin feels a deep sorrow coming from him.

“It is all true, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Liu Jin replies somberly. “The Storm Dragon Empire is a land submerged in civil war. Though an emperor exists, it is the Three Heavenly Generals who fight for power.”

“And one of these generals, this Murong Bang, destroyed your home,” the Duke says.

“That is so.”

“You wish revenge.”

“I wish to stop the civil war,” Liu Jin says. “Murong Bang and his soldiers wronged me, just as they wrong their own countrymen every day. That offends me.”

“Offends,” the Duke echoes him and laughs. “How bold of you. Perhaps, you expect me to approve of the righteousness of your cause.

His laughter stops.

“Your servant already told me what you plan. One of the three generals is a traitorous dog who has sold his soul to foreigners, yet this is the general you have chosen to side with. Do you understand what that means, child? Your servant may have spent several days telling me of the greatness of your character, but you seek to supplant the emperor I owe my loyalty to. That cannot be denied.”

His Qi is tranquil.

Despite being a Renegade, despite having cause to be angry, the Duke does not raise his Qi.

How long must he have prepared himself for this?

“Why should I not kill you right here, child?”

Liu Jin meets the Duke’s gaze and begins to push himself off the ground.

It is agony.

The light has mended him enough to move, but his body screams at him to stay still. Even breathing causes him pain.

“My lord!” Lei Kong cries. “Do not move! You’re not well!”

Lei Kong tries to stop him, but Liu Jin waves him away. He has to do at least this much.

Because the Duke’s question is a sincere one.

“It is as the Duke says,” Liu Jin says, fighting hard to keep his voice steady. “I seek to end the war, and for that purpose, the one I will support will be General Nie Dan, who is not loyal to the emperor but to the Eternal Flame Clan. Compared to the other two, I deemed General Nie the easiest to influence. The actions I take are simply the result of my own powerlessness.”

“The Eternal Flame Clan you are a part of has been fattening on my country’s misery. Every single one of you here is guilty of that. I should kill you all for the sake of the Storm Dragon Empire.”

“Not a single person here has done anything wrong to the Storm Dragon Empire,” Liu Jin counters. “A son is not guilty of his father’s crimes, nor is a disciple at fault for his master’s actions. What do children like us know of what the Elders do?”

“True. The children here are not guilty, but if you are successful, you will be responsible for granting even more power over my country to the people who plundered it.”

“The war will not end until one side is the victor,” Liu Jin says. “You speak of the evils of the Eternal Flame Clan and shame me for choosing them as though the other two were better. Murong Bang is nothing but a monster.”

“And the Emperor?”

“If the Emperor is content to hide away in his palace while the people suffer, how can he be righteous?”

The air cracks with force, yet Liu Jin continues.

“A man like that has already lost his mandate. From the very beginning, I understood no one was righteous. If the great Duke believes he can stop the war and the misery in a more efficient way, please do so. Remove this burden from my shoulders, and I will be happy.”

The Duke holds his gaze for several moments. Despite being in the presence of Renegade, Liu Jin never once wavers.

“Do you really believe you can end the war and bring peace to my homeland?” the Duke asks at last.

“I will not allow any other outcome.”

“Not allow.” The Duke snorts. “You will not allow. It offends you. Have you listened to how you speak, child? Are you a king or an emperor to say things like that?”

The Duke turns around.

“This Duke has heard enough. I will take my leave.”

Liu Jin blinks. Just like that?

“When I become an Emperor, I will see what has become of my homeland. If I disapprove of your results, I will kill you.”

~~~