~~~

“Your Majesty, I have considerable doubts.”

“Your doubts are noted,” Liu Jin replies, “as is the fact that you now feel so comfortable disagreeing with me. I am proud of you, but please, move faster.”

“At once, Your Majesty!”

“And don’t raise your voice to try to get us caught. It’s beneath you.”

The way Lei Kong flinches tells Liu Jin his guess hit its mark, but Liu Jin does not think badly of him for it. Though it has been a little over two weeks since Liu Jin woke up, he has yet to fully recover from merging with the Storm Dragon. Even taking a few steps causes him to feel tired. That is why Liu Jin has been spending most of his time in his room, leaving only to attend meetings.

He is not supposed to secretly leave the palace in the middle of the night.

If Liu Jin and Lei Kong were to be caught, several people would have many unkind things to say about what they are doing, but Liu Jin is not too worried about that. It does not matter how slowly Lei Kong walks or how many times he pauses to adjust Liu Jin so he doesn't accidentally fall off. Lei Kong might not have realized it yet, but it is no mere coincidence that they have yet to encounter a single person on their path.

Liu Jin is of Qing blood. If he tells the Storm Dragon to make it so they will not be found, they will not be found. Out of everyone in the palace, General Nie Dan is the only one with the power to notice them, and his lack of interference implies his tacit approval.

At least, that is how Liu Jin is choosing to interpret it.

Eventually and with much delay, Liu Jin and Lei Kong reach their destination. It is a spot only a few miles away from the main building, thus still within the Storm Dragon’s sphere of influence.

Xiao Nan is there.

A Renegade Realm cultivator represents a severe threat. As such, Xiao Nan is allowed to stay near the palace but not inside it, and even that kindness is only extended to him because General Nie Dan is here. With him present, any potential rampage of Xiao Nan would end very quickly and decisively.

That does not stop those in the palace from being wary of Xiao Nan, and rightly so.

“Are you sure, Your Majesty? You might have known him before, but…” Lei Kong trails off, visibly struggling to find a gentle way of saying it before giving up. “He’s a Renegade, Your Majesty. They are mad. You know this.”

“As I recall, you spent several days talking to one.”

“And it was a very terrifying experience!”

Liu Jin chuckles.

“It’ll be fine, Lei Kong. Let me go. I can walk on my own from here.”

Though his face is full of doubt, Lei Kong eventually relents. He helps Liu Jin stand on his own feet, looking ready to grab him at any second should he stumble. He almost ends up having to do that, but Liu Jin regains his balance in time and motions him to stop.

Testing his balance by shifting his weight from one foot to another, Liu Jin gives himself a little nod and begins walking. The strain added by the Earth Realm makes even the simplest movements difficult. In his current state…

The word reckless could probably be used somewhere.

“Elder Brother, it has been a long time.”

“You should not have come here, Little Brother.”

Xiao Nan looks much better than he did during the battle. He has cleaned himself and been given new robes. However, his Qi remains erratic, a warning to others to stay away.

Liu Jin smiles and sits down next to Xiao Nan. Reaching into his spatial pouch, he takes out a bag of sweets and offers them to Xiao Nan.

“Elder Brother, if you did not wish me to visit you, you would have left already.”

The smile on Xiao Nan’s face is a tired one, but it succeeds in reminding Liu Jin of simpler times.

“To be seen through so thoroughly, I am going to lose face if you keep talking, Little Brother.” Something shines in Xiao Nan’s eyes as he takes the offered sweets. He blinks, and it goes away. “You have grown so much… Part of me still thinks I am dreaming.”

Liu Jin feels something shining in his eyes, too. Unlike Xiao Nan, he’s not as successful at blinking it away.

“Many things happened after Eastern Port City fell, Elder Brother… I… I thought you were dead…I didn’t know what to do. I made so many dumb decisions. So many mistakes…”

“Hey, none of that, Little Brother,” Xiao Nan says, wagging his finger from left to right. “What unreasonable standards are you using to judge yourself? I see before me a proper young man who is already in the Earth Realm with a spirit that’s as unshakeable as any mountain. If dumb decisions and mistakes led you to become this, then clearly children around the world should be taught your mistakes so they might repeat them.”

Liu Jin can’t help but smile. It really feels like he is back in Eastern Port City again.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Besides,” a teasing grin appears on Xiao Nan’s face as he happily bites down on his sweets, “Should the ruler of a nation really talk so harshly about himself? What will his subjects think?”

Liu Jin groans.

“Even you, Elder Brother?”

“Can you blame me, Little Brother?” Xiao Nan laughs and shakes his head. “I am not even that surprised about it. I always knew Doctor Liu was a spectacular man.”

Liu Jin’s head dips a little. “He really was.”

“I am sorry.” The smile on Xiao Nan’s face dims. “You must miss him terribly. Your master as well.”

“It happened years ago,” Liu Jin says.

“That does not mean it has stopped hurting,” Xiao Nan points out. “Other than the two of us, did anyone else…?”

“Xiao Fang was not in the city, so he’s still alive,” Liu Jin says. “Su An’s situation… It is complicated, but she might be alive. There were some other survivors who were rescued when they were on their way to being sold but for the most part… most people died that night.”

Xiao Nan stays quiet after that. It is easy to understand why. Unlike Liu Jin, Xiao Nan was friends with several people and loved by many.

“I see,” Xiao Nan says at last. “To be honest, I am still coming to terms with it. I have not been given much time to dwell on it.”

“What happened?” Liu Jin asks. “I learned that you fought Bright Sword during the fall of Eastern Port City. They said he killed you, but that is clearly not the case.”

Surprisingly, Xiao Nan smiles.

“Ah, you should have seen it, Little Brother,” he says. “Your Elder Brother is already a naturally amazing person, but I was especially amazing that night. I forced my advancement into the Heaven Realm and defeated two out of three Heaven Realm cultivators.”

His smile fades

“Unfortunately, the third one was Bright Sword, who is no Heaven Realm cultivator at all,” Xiao Nan says. “We fought for a long while. I thought it was a close fight, but I would later learn he had been toying with me. When I woke up, I was already trapped inside the Sacred Bottomless Pearl.”

Liu Jin nods. When he merged with the Storm Dragon, he sensed the rare item in Bright Sword’s possession: an impossibly vast spatial realm held inside a plain-looking pearl. It had been so unusual that it called his attention. That is how he found Xiao Nan’s Qi.

“He claimed it was one of the best possible training grounds. As much of a bastard as he was, Bright Sword was not exaggerating,” Xiao Nan says. “Finding food. Fighting beasts. Surviving the ever-changing conditions. Every single day was a struggle. My growth rate accelerated greatly because of it.”

Xiao Nan’s words are the truth, but they are also an extreme understatement. The Xiao Nan that was captured had just crossed into the Heaven Realm while the Xiao Nan before Liu Jin is in the Fourth Level of the Renegade Realm. Crossing the Heaven Realm alone is supposed to be the result of decades. To have done that and reached the mid-levels of the Renegade Realm in under five years is completely unheard of as far as Liu Jin is aware.

Xiao Nan’s growth rate is not just incredible. It is obscene.

“Bright Sword would show up every now and then. I’d try to kill him. He’d reveal he was much stronger than I thought him to be. Once I reached the Ninth Level of the Heaven Realm, he began pushing me to enter the Renegade Realm. I did not want to, but he did not give me a choice in the matter.”

“Why would he do that?”

Xiao Nan snorts.

“That’s the worst part about it. He was always a cryptic bastard,” Xiao Nan says, munching on the cake with particular viciousness. “He kept talking about the preservation of humanity or something. What’s that supposed to mean? What is humane about torturing someone for years? As if my grand self could be tied down by such a meager–”

Xiao Nan stops.

Talking. Moving. Breathing. Even his Qi goes completely still.

He exhales.

“That was close,” he says, and Liu Jin does not understand, but he knows something bad has been avoided. “Little Brother, I cannot stay here forever.”

Liu Jin nods. He never imagined otherwise, though it does sadden him to hear it.

“Is the madness that bad?”

“Madness?” Xiao Nan snorts. “It’s an interesting way to call it. I understand why. It’s certainly the end result, but that’s not quite the issue. The Renegade Realm does not make you crazy right away. Most people know that part, but the madness is not what people think it is. The Earth Realm ties you down. The Heaven Realm strikes you down. But the challenge of the Renegade Realm… It is yourself. You do not become mad. You become more yourself.”

Liu Jin blinks. He remembers hearing something about that once.

“More…yourself?”

“It sounds silly, doesn’t it?” Xiao Nan smiles. “A coward might become more cowardly, but what does a kind man need to fear from becoming kinder or a brave man from becoming braver? Surely, those would be upsides?”

His face darkens.

“But that’s how it starts. That’s how it gets you. Your traits become exaggerated until you have become something unrecognizable. Unbalanced. The madness starts from there. Because you are in a world that is completely irreconcilable with yourself. That’s why people try to rush through the Renegade Realm as quickly as possible.”

“The Eternal Flame Clan has a place called the Pyre's End,” Liu Jin blurts out. “It’s where they send their Renegades. If I talk to Elder Xue, it’s possible Elder Brother might be accepted there. Resources could be allocated to you. The Eternal Flame Clan would not ignore someone so talented and–”

Liu Jin cuts himself off when Xiao Nan starts laughing.

“Do not misunderstand. I am not laughing at you, Little Brother. To speak so casually of asking such a favor from an Elder of the Eternal Flame Clan, you have become quite outrageous,” Xiao Nan says, shaking his head. “But no, I’ll pass. I have had quite enough of being confined. I want to roam. Besides… I am starting to think isolation and resources are the wrong way to go about defeating the Renegade Realm.”

Xiao Nan makes a fist and holds it to the sky.

“The enemy is yourself, so you must defeat it with yourself,” Xiao Nan says. “Emptiness. As long as I hold on to my Dao, I believe I can remain myself. The deeper it tries to twist me, the deeper I’ll hold on to myself.”

“Emptiness,” Liu Jin repeats. “That Dao… it does not seem to fit Elder Brother. It sounds too bleak.”

“On the contrary,” Xiao Nan says. “Haven’t you heard this, Little Brother? A bowl is most useful when it is empty. Emptiness is not bleak. Emptiness is potential. It is a possibility. It is boundless. It is the hope for something good.”

The smile on Xiao Nan’s face is impossibly contagious.

“You’re too amazing, Elder Brother. I’m no match,” Liu Jin says, shaking his head. “However, if roaming is what you wish, I met someone in the Dead Plains who might help you.”

“Oh?” Xiao Nan raises an eyebrow. “You must have had quite a few adventures while I was gone.”

“Entirely too many.”

“Tell me about them.”

Liu Jin does.

For the entire night, Liu Jin and Xiao Nan talk and trade stories. They talk about Eastern Port City and beyond. They laugh, they cry, and they hug.

By the next morning, Xiao Nan is gone.

~~~