~~~

Liu Jin throws up as soon as he’s finished.

He walks through Poison Fang Canyon in a daze. A minute. An hour. Liu Jin does not know how long it has been. He does not know how much time has passed since…

His muscles tense. His teeth gnash against each other.

Don’t think.

Keep walking. Keep walking.

Stay angry. Grab hold of it. Don’t let go no matter what.

If he does… If he does…

His fist lashes out, striking a tree next to him. Splinters fly all over the place as the tree cracks and breaks under his strength. It falls to the ground a second later.

He needs to get out of here.

It is the one thing Liu Jin knows for sure. He needs to get out of the canyon. Left foot. Right foot. Keep walking. Left. Right. Left. Right. Keep angry. Stay angry. Left. Right. Left. Right.

It is dark all around him. It is always dark inside Poison Fang Canyon. The trees have been left free to grow for centuries, their leaves forming a dense canopy that prevents most sunlight from breaking through. Only a few stray beams of light make it to the ground, leaving the rest of the canyon shrouded in darkness.

As Liu Jin is right now, the darkness doesn’t make a difference.

Liu Jin isn’t even looking at where he’s going. He is too lost in his thoughts for that. Still, he does not make a single misstep. Constant trips to Poison Fang Canyon and back have left a mark on him. His body knows the way by heart even if his mind isn’t thinking about it. His stumbling, dazed steps manage to avoid every single exposed branch on his way. That is how familiar Liu Jin is with his surroundings.

And yet, he falls all the same.

It catches him by surprise. One moment, Liu Jin is walking through the canyon’s depths, lost in his inner turmoil. The next, he is falling towards the ground, his eyes widening. The shock jolts his reflexes into awareness. His palms come forward and push against the dirt, using the momentum to bring the rest of his body forward as he performs a flawless somersault through the air.

His landing is perfect. Not one speck of dirt gets on his clothes.

Slapping his palms together to shake off the dirt, Liu Jin turns around to see what caused him to trip. He expects to find an exposed branch or maybe the corpse of a Spirit Beast left behind by one of the many creatures inhabiting the canyon. Such things are not uncommon.

Liu Jin finds a person instead.

He lies unconscious with his face facing the ground. Even so, Liu Jin is fairly sure it is not anyone from Eastern Port City.

After all, he has never seen armor quite like that in the city.

Rectangular plates made of some sort of black metal are laced together in horizontal rows to form body armor that protects the man’s torso and upper legs. His pauldrons, bracers, and helmet are made of the same material. A lone blue plume rises from the tip of his helmet, one of the few bits of color in the otherwise dark ensemble.

The armored man is dying.

Had Liu Jin been in his right mind, it would have been the first thing he noticed. As it is, the realization is slow to come, like drops of water spreading through a dry cloth. When he does finally realize it, Liu Jin immediately dashes over to the man’s side, inwardly cursing himself for his stupidity.

Poison Fang Canyon is not friendly to visitors. Certainly, the outer areas are safe for cultivators to explore. However, the high-toxicity areas near the center of the canyon can kill even high-level cultivators in the blink of an eye! Many had tried to prove otherwise over the years, and many had died stupidly as a result. The only reason why Liu Jin is able to walk freely across all parts of the canyon is because he has been taught how to deal with the poison.

The same cannot be said of this person.

Liu Jin turns the body over, revealing the man’s features. Physically, he appears to be in his twenties with a square chin and thin lips. Dark spots color his face, and Liu Jin doesn’t doubt the same can be said of the rest of his body. The ambient poison of the canyon is already at work. At the rate it is going, the man will not last for much longer. Had Liu Jin stumbled upon him even a minute later, he’d have found a corpse.

A corpse.

The word echoes in Liu Jin’s mind until his lips form a thin line. His fingers curl into fists.

No.

That will not do.

That will not do at all.

Not again. Not this soon.

Not on the same day.

Without even a second’s hesitation, Liu Jin throws the man over his shoulder and takes off running. As he does, his hand finds an area of exposed skin and starts draining the poison through skin contact. That a child like him can do something like that would astound even the doctors of the Xiao Sect. It is a testament to the education he has received from his father and—

While removing the poison from the man’s body, Liu Jin is able to tell quite a few things about him. The man is in the late stages of the True Realm, likely in the seventh level, though his current state makes it hard to know for sure. Regardless, it is impressive considering his body does seem to be around twenty years old.

His right arm is gone.

An accident of some sort removed it right at the shoulder. The only reason Liu Jin was not able to tell this just by looking at the man is that he is wearing a prosthesis under his armor. It is made of steel, and he probably moves it through careful manipulation of his Qi. The prosthesis makes him heavier than he should be, but Liu Jin doesn’t mind. The weight barely catches his attention.

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Regrettable as the man’s missing arm is, it is not the worst of it. Whatever accident took his arm also grievously damaged the meridians on the right side of his body. It is the sort of injury that can completely stop someone’s cultivation. Considering that, the man being in the True Realm is commendable. However, it does beg one question:

How exactly did a True Realm cultivator find his way to the middle of Poison Fang Canyon?

Liu Jin latches on to the question as he runs through the canyon’s depths. He needs something to occupy his mind, and purging the man’s body of poison is so simple he does not even need to think about it.

Liu Jin did not feel anyone else’s Qi when he entered the canyon, though it would be a lie to say he was looking for such things. In fact, there has rarely been a time when Liu Jin has been less focused on his surroundings. Still, if this man had been inside Poison Fang Canyon when Liu Jin arrived, he’d probably be dead already, meaning that he entered the canyon while Liu Jin was… distracted.

What a curious fortune.

Because the man arrived after… after the creatures of the canyon had been suitably scared, he did not encounter any opposition and was free to make his way to the higher-toxicity areas. Similarly, because the toxicity of the canyon has been decreasing since Nine-Headed Snake God’s passing, the man was able to survive until Liu Jin found him.

Liu Jin hums in thought.

Without a doubt, this man has good luck.

As soon as they leave the boundaries of Poison Fang Canyon, Liu Jin places the man’s body on the ground and waits. Since the man is a cultivator in the True Realm, Liu Jin doesn’t doubt that he will wake up sooner rather than later.

Sure enough, it doesn’t even take ten breaths after the man’s body no longer has to deal with the canyon’s poison for his eyes to snap open. His body goes into alert a fraction of a second later, backing away as he fluidly rises to his feet. His head jerks from side to side, looking for threats, his body already adopting a combat stance.

“You should not make sudden movements,” Liu Jin says. He is sitting on the ground a few feet away from the man with his legs crossed. “Your body is still recovering, so you’ll just make yourself dizzy.”

The man’s head snaps in his direction. His fists follow suit before he realizes the one speaking to him is a child.

“What?”

Whether he speaks in reaction to Liu Jin’s words or the situation he finds himself in is up for debate. Regardless, Liu Jin answers.

“I said your body is still recovering. Do not make sudden movements.”

The man’s brown eyes grow less cloudy as Liu Jin’s words pierce his consciousness, and he realizes he’s not in any immediate danger.

“You…” He looks at Liu Jin with diminishing hostility and growing confusion. “You saved me?”

“I did.”

The man is left staring at him in confusion. “I… how?

“I work at a clinic and often come to the canyon to gather medicinal herbs,” Liu Jin says, doing his best to keep his voice even. The man’s accent is not one he is unfamiliar with. He has definitely heard it before.

He has heard it before... from the merchants who come from the Storm Dragon Empire.

It doesn’t happen often. Though Eastern Port City is located near the border between the Crimson Cloud Empire and the Storm Dragon Empire, there are more popular trading routes. Eastern Port City is not without natural resources, but the Xiao and Yun Sects kept a tight hold of how those are distributed. Still, on occasion, merchants from the Storm Dragon Empire would pass through the city.

They have the same accent as this man.

“I found you and had to drag your body outside the canyon before administering the antidote.” Liu Jin pauses, then adds. “You are welcome.”

“I—Of course, where are my manners?” The man shakes his head as if trying to rid himself of any remaining dizziness. “Young man, were it not for you, I’d probably be dead. For that, you have this Lei Kong’s gratitude.”

The man in armor bows his head to Liu Jin, one hand clasped over the other.

“Please, tell me how can I repay you for saving me. As long as it is within my power, this Lei Kong will do his best to see it done.”

Brown eyes look at him with a stubborn sort of honesty. They tell Liu Jin that Lei Kong will not accept the sort of answer where Liu Jin tells him to think nothing of it. Normally, Liu Jin would sigh at such a thing, but on this occasion, it suits his purposes.

Anything that can help him occupy his mind is a good thing.

“Hmm, repay me?” Liu Jin frowns as he pretends to think about it. “Well, I guess a story would do.”

The man jerks his head back, surprised. His brow furrows in confusion. “A story?”

“I had to leave behind the herbs I had gathered to carry your body,” Liu Jin lies. “The beasts inside are likely on alert right now and will attack if I try to enter the canyon again. It is safe to say this day has been a waste, so at the very least, it’d be nice if you could satisfy my curiosity. I can tell you are not from Eastern Port City. Otherwise, you would have known better than to approach Poison Fang Canyon so recklessly. If you want to repay me, the least you could do is tell me how you ended up in those circumstances.”

Lei Kong gives Liu Jin a long look before sighing and letting himself drop to the ground in front of him.

“I suppose that is something I can do. It’d be exceedingly rude of me to deny my savior such a simple request. As you may be able to tell from the way I am dressed, I am a soldier. However, I do not belong to the Crimson Cloud Empire but rather to the Storm Dragon Empire.”

A surprised sound leaves Liu Jin’s mouth, though for different reasons than Lei Kong intends. Liu Jin wasn’t sure if Lei Kong would admit to being from the Storm Dragon Empire.

A soldier in a country not his own is always a little suspicious.

“Our squadron was doing routine border patrol, but I was separated from the others during a confrontation with a beast. I was flung all the way here during the fight.”

Flung.

Liu Jin cannot help but raise an eyebrow at the word used. Lei Kong could have just said he got separated from his comrades in the chaos of the battle, but he hadn’t. He had used a very specific word.

Flung.

Is he really saying he was literally flung here all the way from the border? While Eastern Port City and Poison Fang Canyon are close to the border neither are exactly a stone’s throw away.

Well, for high-level cultivators, a stone’s throw away might be a fairly accurate description.

“I wished to avoid a commotion, so I did not approach the city. Instead, I went into the canyon to seek shelter and perhaps see if I could kill some Spirit Beasts and harvest their cores before returning. It’d be cause for much mockery if I returned empty-handed after the way I was separated from the others.” Lei Kong shrugs haplessly as he finishes his story. “As you can see, I underestimated the canyon’s toxicity. Had it not been for you, I’d be dead.”

“Most likely,” Liu Jin agrees. “What will you do now then? If you are with me, you can probably enter the city. You could rest today and leave tomorrow.”

Lei Kong shakes his head, moving to stand up. “No, if you’ll forgive me, I think I have seen enough of the Crimson Cloud Empire. I’ll return to the border now. I doubt we’ll meet again, but if we do, I hope it is under better circumstances.”

“I see.”

To his surprise, Liu Jin feels a little sad he cannot convince the man to stay. Before he learned of his father’s past, he wouldn’t have cared much, but now he knows this man hails from the same land as his father.

The Storm Dragon Empire.

Liu Jin wants to know more about it.

“Just one more thing,” Liu Jin calls out to Lei Kong. The soldier, who is already walking away, stops. “The Storm Dragon Empire. Is it a good place to live?”

Lei Kong does not say anything for a while, making Liu Jin wonder if he hadn’t heard him.

At last, he looks back, an unreadable expression on his face.

“It is home.”

~~~