~~~

It is an odd thing to stand over the corpse of his killer.

Life has already fled the Fleshcrafter's body. Nine-Headed Snake God's poison has seen to that. Its potency is such that it will not stop until the Fleshcrafter's body is completely destroyed. Already, the corpse has turned on an odd mix of yellow and purple, the result of the quick degeneration of his organs. In a few minutes, the Fleshcrafter will be nothing more than a puddle on the floor.

By all accounts, the Fleshcrafter deserves this fate. He was a horrible person, and the world is undeniably better off without him. Liu Jin supposes it wouldn't be wrong to find some joy in this. However, though thinking about Fleshcrafter elicited violent emotions within him ever since he crawled out of his old body, now that the deed is done, he feels remarkably little.

No joy, only pity.

The Fleshcrafter wouldn’t appreciate it, but Liu Jin cannot help what he feels. The man had been used and tossed aside by the Storm Dragon. Till the very end, he did not realize he’d been nothing but a tool.

How can that be anything other than pitiful?

“Honored Ancestor,” Liu Jin says, his voice echoing across the hall. “Are you still not satisfied? Must you keep the spatial realm up?”

The Storm Dragon does not answer him.

The seconds pass, and Liu Jin is met with nothing but silence. It is a clear dismissal. He has died and awakened a part of himself. He has fought the Fleschrafter and defeated him. All the things the Storm Dragon needed of him have been done. Thus, there is no longer any need for the Storm Dragon to humor him.

In that sense, he and the Fleschrafter are not that different.

“No.”

Liu Jin’s Qi flares up. Gold lightning forms wild arcs around him, destroying the tapestries on the walls.

“Ancestor. I refuse to play along with your games any longer,” Liu Jin says.

The storm answers.

The lightning blinds his eyes, and the thunder deafens his ears. He feels the rain against his face, and the wind blows with such strength it threatens to carry him away. Liu Jin grits his teeth and lays down Su An’s body, creating a snake construct around her to keep her safe. The state of her soul is a mystery to him, and there is no telling who she will be when she opens her eyes. Nevertheless, Liu Jin has already lost her once. He has no desire to be parted from her a second time.

“I am tired of being a piece you can move on a board,” he says, letting his lightning shine purple, proclaiming his royal lineage as it rises into the heavens. “You will not use me, and you will not use those close to me.”

“Is that so?”

The Storm Dragon’s voice alone nearly brings him to his knees.

“You try to speak with authority, but do you really believe you command any?” The Storm Dragon asks. “If I refuse you, what will you do? Cry? Scream? Throw a tantrum? Tell me, whelp. Why should I listen to you?”

“You will listen because you are the one who needs me,” Liu Jin replies, placing a hand on his chest. “The emperor and his son are both of Qing blood, yet you called me here. You could have thrown Su Daji from this palace at any moment, yet you did not. She could have easily become the princess of this country by marrying my cousin, yet you still did nothing. You allowed all that to happen on the chance that I would eventually come here.”

The storm rumbles but does not overwhelm him. Liu Jin takes it as a good sign.

“You have already discarded the other two as suitable successors. The emperor has shown himself to be weak and allowed General He Bin to rule in his place. Qing Guo is not a bad person, but he has been under both their influences for far too long. That leaves only me. I am your only hope for the Storm Dragon Empire and the Qing Family. You need me.”

“I do not need an unruly whelp.”

“If you do not accept an unruly whelp, you shall have nothing,” Liu Jin counters. “Your power is unmatched within the palace. That is why it is so easy to forget how limited you truly are. Outside this boundary, even the lowest peasant is beyond your reach. Keep us trapped here, and the world will go on without us. New rulers shall rise, and you shall remain here. Powerless like the shadow you are. Do you want that? Or will you do as I command and let me enter the palace!”

Liu Jin is shouting by the end, resentments old and new bubbling to the surface. When he ends, all is silent save for the sound of his breathing. He has crossed a line. He knows it.

And yet, the storm laughs.

“Well said!” The Storm Dragon’s laughter booms so loudly that Liu Jin has to cover his ears. “I was wondering how long it’d take you to stand up to me!”

Liu Jin stares.

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“You… wanted this to happen?”

“A ruler should not submit himself, and a dragon should not allow others to dictate his path.”

Liu Jin’s eye twitches.

Did that mean… Had he stood up to the Storm Dragon from the beginning… Had he denied him completely…?

“You feel constrained by the powers of those above you and resent them. That is a good thing,” the Storm Dragon says. “However, resentment is not enough. What good is resentment if your head still bows? On some level, you have accepted your position and, in doing so, turned a blind eye to your own power. That cannot be. I could not entrust this country to someone who does not understand his value.”

Liu Jin breathes.

“Ancestor, I acknowledge your wisdom,” he says. He knows he shouldn’t continue, but he does anyway. “However, I will not be as you wish me to be. This country needs to be guided back to prosperity, but it does not need to be me who does it. If I deem General Nie Dan suitable for the job, it shall be him. If I decide the Eternal Flame Clan can guide this country, it shall be them. I will not be your next emperor.”

“That is your right,” the Storm Dragon says, much to Liu Jin’s surprise. “It is as you say, whelp. I am a Shadow. My role here is done. If my descendants decide to give up their divine right, that is something I must accept. I merely want the decision to be made by someone I approve of.”

“I see…”

“No, you do not, but you might one day. Enter the palace with your head held high, for you have my blessing.”

The storm fades away, and light follows.

~~~

The spatial realm fades away, and for a moment, Liu Jin can almost believe he is back in his father’s clinic. The world around him feels safe and comforting in a way he had forgotten it could be. It wraps around him like a warm blanket and acts like a balm upon his soul and armor against all the evils in the world.

It feels like home. One he has never known but undeniably his.

The feeling overwhelms him to the point the details of the Storm Dragon Palace become lost to him. They do not matter. Nothing does. Liu Jin can do little more than bask in the moment.

That is why it takes him so long to notice the obvious.

It pierces into his consciousness like ice digging into his brain. His peace shatters, and his mind is thrown into a haze of confusion. He is moving before he knows it. Three walls come down in the blink of an eye. Trying to find his way through the corridors would have taken too long. He needs to get there. He needs to see. It can’t be right. It can’t!

“It’s just not possible…”

Everything he knows tells him the sight before him is not possible. He blinks and rubs his eyes, but the world refuses to change,

Murong Bang’s dying body remains as real and true as the floor under his feet.

There is a hole in his chest. Whoever did it managed to break right through his armor. Usually, an Emperor would easily regenerate from something like that, but that is no mere physical injury. The hole is precisely where Murong Bang’s middle dantian should be. Liu Jin immediately understands that not only has Murong Bang’s dantian been broken, but whoever did this used his dantian to directly attack Murong Bang’s soul and rip it to pieces.

Despite being in a state of shock, Liu Jin’s eyes take note of every nick and crack in Murong Bang’s armor. The hole in his chest aside, Murong Bang’s body is remarkably free of wounds. The battle ended with one decisive hit.

How?

How could this have happened? Who could have done this?

How could he have missed it?!

Murong Bang stirs, and Liu Jin is immediately at his side. The general’s eyes open, but they never fully come into focus. A weak groan comes from his lips, a sound Liu Jin struggles to associate with the general.

His head tilts in Liu Jin’s direction.

“Ah… I see… I knew… I always knew…” Murong Bang’s bloody lips somehow manage to form a smile. “The bitch Duling thought you wanted us to find you. Dan stayed, but he’d given up on seeing you again. But I knew you’d come back…Ah, but look at me... I can't welcome you like this.”

Liu Jin immediately understands that Murong Bang is not talking to him.

Murong Bang thinks he is talking to his father.

“Why do you always see me like this?” Murong Bang’s laugh is a weak thing full of blood. “If you’d come earlier, you’d have seen me in a much better state. I tried, you know? I always did. This place… this land… It was too weak for you. You couldn’t stand it, right? I don’t blame you. I can’t stand it either. I did my best. Purged it. I wanted it to be pure for you. Free of all those annoying things.”

What?

All this time… the reason why Murong Bang played the part of a ruler...It was because of that?

“I even took care of your kid. He’s soft, but he’s yours. You’re lucky it wasn’t that bitch who found him. Sometimes, I’ll blink and think you’re standing in his place. Who knows what that crazy head of hers would think?”

He snorts.

“You kept me waiting,” Murong Bang says. “Why… did you keep me waiting? I only know how to do one thing. I am a monster, you know? I knew that even before I met you... Killed my mother right out of the womb. Killed my father a few years later. Kept killing ever since. I’m good at it. That’s why you chose me.”

He starts coughing. Murong Bang is drowning in his own blood. By all rights, he shouldn’t even be able to talk.

“So why didn’t you take me with you?”

For a moment, the powerful general looks like nothing more than a lost child.

Liu Jin desperately wishes to unsee it.

“I would have followed you. I know you don’t need me… never did… I know…. But I wanted to keep killing for you. When I followed your orders… When I slaughtered at your command… Those are the only times anything has ever made sense. Those are the only damned times!”

He laughs. More blood blows.

“I suppose I can’t complain… I had fun, you know?... Dying like this ain’t bad... You even showed... but… Hey… this is stupid… I know it’s stupid, but… If I had kept killing for you… do you think…”

Blood keeps flowing. He is choking on it.

“Do you think… I could have become a person?”

There are so many things that Liu Jin wants to say. He wants to curse Murong Bang’s name. Tell him that the Black Dragon will never return. Tell him as he dies that it was his lust for battle that ended up killing the only man he ever truly respected. He wants that realization to sink into his soul as he dies.

He doesn’t.

He can’t.

He can only meet Murong Bang’s eyes with his own, never once looking away as death takes him.

In death, Murong Bang is shown the kindness he denied to everyone in life.

It is a better fate than he deserves.

~~~