~~~

Liu Jin finishes all the preparations early in the morning. He spends the rest of his time cleaning his instruments, pacing around the room, and writing a letter he should have written from the start.

Ren He and Yan Chao arrive at the usual time. Their eyes keep drifting to the elixir on the way to the throne room. They look at it with hope and apprehension in equal measures. It is not hard to understand why. Certainly, they wish for things to return to normal, but will healing Ruan Goutin truly accomplish that? It is a question no one knows the answer to.

It may be that healing Ruan Goutin will just make things worse. Fearing that is only natural. Liu Jin even worries that they will take the elixir and throw it away. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen. They take him to the throne room as usual.

“I truly must commend you,” Ruan Goutin says once he and Liu Jin are alone. The doors are closed, the barrier is up, and Liu Jin can speak again. “I did not believe you when you said you could heal me, yet with every day that passes, I feel myself improving.”

He laughs, happy and relieved.

“It truly is a wonderful thing to be rid of that maddening pain. I even feel my old strength returning. Truly, you are worthy of serving me.”

“My lord, I am honored by your praise.” Liu Jin bows his head as he lifts the tray and offers the final dose of elixir to Branch Master Ruan.

He takes it.

Liu Jin watches as the bottle is emptied. It happens quickly, yet to him, the events go by at a glacial pace. Such is his nervousness.

The bottle shatters in Ruan Goutin’s hands.

“At last!” He roars with a crazed smile, his fist raised into the air. “At last, I’m restored! That accursed Wandering Wind thought she had gotten rid of me, but she’ll one day learn the folly of her...”

Ruan Goutin trails off, his gaze firmly locked on his raised fist. He stares at it in complete incomprehension, unable and unwilling to accept what he is looking at. The shards of broken glass have dug into his skin. Red liquid trickles down his arm and stains his clothes.

He is wounded.

He is bleeding.

“What is…?” Ruan Goutin sways on his feet, dazed and confused. “This cannot…”

It cannot possibly be.

There is no way the skin of someone in the Heaven Realm can possibly be damaged by mere shards of glass. There is no way he can possibly be bleeding right now. It is impossible!

That is surely what Ruan Goutin is thinking.

It is why it takes him so long to reach the obvious conclusion.

“You!”

Vicious. Hateful. Venomous. The way Ruan Goutin looks at him is all that and more.

It doesn’t matter.

“What have you done!?” Ruan Goutin roars, stepping over the broken glass. “What have you done to me!”

It is already far too late.

Ruan Goutin’s hand lashes out to strike him.

Liu Jin stops it.

No large impact rings around the room. No furious Qi blows everything away. Liu Jin stands and catches Ruan Goutin’s arm by the wrist with all the ease in the world. It is not that Liu Jin has gotten any stronger. He is still just in the Nascent Realm.

Ruan Goutin’s strike just now was unbearably weak. That is all.

As Ruan Goutin is left to stare in frozen shock, Liu Jin takes the man’s ring and lets him go. The instant the ring is off his finger, the Emperor-class aura surrounding Ruan Goutin is dispelled.

It is not replaced by the aura of a cultivator in the Heaven Realm.

Liu Jin holds up the ring between his fingers. Even now, it still gives off the aura of an Emperor-class cultivator. “So this is how you were fooling everyone into thinking you were still an Emperor.”

“You insolent fool!” Red-faced, Ruan Goutin aims his hand at Liu Jin’s neck and makes a vicious cutting motion.

Nothing happens.

“Impossible!” Desperation creeps into Ruan Goutin’s voice. He keeps aiming his hand at Liu Jin, seeking to activate the symbols he placed on his neck without any success. “This is not possible!”

Liu Jin sighs and brings two fingers to his neck. Nine-Headed Snake God’s Veins pulse as his Qi resonates with the bindings. One by one, he removes them from his skin, flicking them to the floor where they splatter like ink. From the beginning, removing them hadn’t been beyond his ability. He just hadn’t dared to try, fearing Branch Master Ruan would sense his attempt and activate the bindings in response.

There is no need to worry about that now.

“Branch Master Ruan, you should already understand. The elixir was never meant to fix your soul.”

If there truly is an Elixir of Soulful Blessing out there, Liu Jin does not know it.

“What you have been drinking for the past nine days… Its true name is Elixir of Joyful Dreams. Perhaps, you might have heard of it.” Judging by Ruan Goutin’s rapidly paling face, he most certainly has. “It is not meant to heal wounds or cure illnesses. Instead, its primary use is recreational. It causes the one who drinks it to experience mild hallucinations. This one is a variant of it.”

Or rather, this is the original version of it, which is both stronger and subtler than what one might commonly find nowadays.

According to his master, its first recorded use was well over four thousand years ago. Faced with a city’s impenetrable defenses, a cunning general turned to his alchemists for a solution. The Elixir of Joyful Dreams was what they came up with. They produced it in large amounts and placed it in large cauldrons all around the city. The vapors generated by the boiling elixir flew over the mighty walls and caught the enemy in a pleasant dream, allowing the general to easily capture the city.

It had been an interesting story. His master had a lot of those. Back then, Liu Jin had not seen the value of this elixir, but his master had told him one never knew when one might need alternate means to occupy a patient’s mind.

Liu Jin doubted his master had foreseen he’d ever use the elixir this way.

No, perhaps he had.

“If I had made the dose too strong right away, you’d have noticed it and countered it.”

“That’s enough!”

“However,” Liu Jin continues, heedless of Ruan Goutin’s plea. “What if you were administered weaker doses over the course of several days? The effects would slowly stack up, making it much harder to detect.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

On Ruan Goutin, the first few doses had barely done anything. The effects had been slightly more potent on the disciples, but not one of them had ever drunk the elixir twice in a row, likely out of a sense of duty to each other. Due to that, Ruan Guotin had not noticed anything unusual. The most each disciple had felt had been a slight increase in energy.

Liu Jin had been counting on the disciples acting that way. It had been a gamble, but the concern Yan Chao had shown for Ren He seemed real enough to him.

“Once the elixir started affecting you, you grew careless because you thought your condition was improving. This allowed me to up the potency of the doses.”

“Enough! Stop talking!” Ruan Goutin shouts, wide-eyed, desperate and panicking.

Begging.

“You thought you stopped feeling pain because you were healing. That is not it. You stopped feeling pain because your senses dulled. Your mood. Your energy. Your apparent health. It is not real. It never was.”

Liu Jin does not stop. It is not that he wishes to boast. It is just…

It’d be too cruel not to explain everything.

“You have just been lost in a daze all this time.”

There is a part of Liu Jin that desperately wants to look away from Ruan Goutin’s face as the reality of his situation sinks in, as the last flicker of hope dies. However, he refuses to do so.

This is his work.

He will not avert his eyes.

“You felt no pain and convinced yourself you were healing. Because of this, you slowly stopped paying attention to your dantian.”

“I said stop!”

“Without your mind to focus on healing them, your dantian have been deteriorating at an incredibly fast pace. The elixir you drank today… it was different. Its purpose was to accelerate the degradation. Your dantian… they are already damaged beyond repair. What little Qi remains inside of you are mere embers. Barely enough for you to be counted among those in the Foundational Realm, the lowest realm of cultivation. In a few hours, that will fade as well.”

“You miserable wretch!” There are tears in Ruan Gountin’s eyes. His fists are clenched so tightly his nails draw blood. “You promised me you’d heal me!”

“I did. I lied to you.”

In the end, there was no way to fix him. Even if Liu Jin somehow learned the theory behind mending souls, it is not as if he’ll suddenly gain the skill to perform the procedure. From the very beginning, there was no saving Branch Master Ruan. The only thing Liu Jin could do is hasten an already inevitable outcome. That is the conclusion he came to.

No, that’s not it.

That is just another lie.

“I thought about it,” Liu Jin admits, meeting Ruan Goutin’s hateful gaze with pity. “I thought about trying to save you. However, how many would I be hurting by restoring a man like you?”

“A man like me? I am Ruan Goutin of the Eternal Raging Valley!” Ruan Goutin hisses venomously, stepping up so he’s right in front of Liu Jin. He glares down at him, yet knows it is he who is being looked down on. “I am someone who has reached the Emperor Realm! I stand above mere rabble such as yourself! You have no right to look at me with those eyes!”

“You stand above others?” Liu Jin can’t help it. He snorts. “Do you still not understand? Yes, you stand above others! You stand above others and kill those you deem useless! You stand above others and sacrifice your own disciples! Do you not realize how many you’ve made miserable? How many in the city live in fear of you?! Why should I ever allow someone like you to remain above so many?!”

As his voice starts growing heated, Liu Jin tries to calm himself. Anger has been at once a distant yet constant companion ever since the fall of Eastern Port City.

There is nothing distant about his anger now.

“If your worst behavior had been limited to the time you were trapped in the Renegade Realm, I could have understood, at least a little, but you were not in the Renegade Realm when you struck one of your own disciples! Do you truly have so little care for those under you?”

“What foolishness are you speaking? Has your brain rotted? Do your eyes not work?” Ruan Goutin looks genuinely indignant. “It is because they are under me that I can treat them like that! The Sect exists for those who are blessed. Those who stand at the stop are pushed up by those below. That is the reason for their being!”

“That’s wrong!”

“That is the way of all Sects.” Ruan Goutin’s roar echoes across the great room. His face is red. His chest rises and falls heavily. Any concern for his wellbeing has been overwhelmed by anger. “It exists for the benefit of the few! Not all can reach eternity. That is why, for those of us for whom the possibility exists, all is permitted! To sacrifice everyone in this mansion and even everyone in this city is just and good so long as it brings me closer to eternity! That is the only thing that matters! A mere whelp who cannot grasp something so simple has no right to judge me!”

“Eternity?”

Liu Jin does not know when he moves. All he knows is that he’s suddenly grabbing Ruan Goutin’s robes, bringing his face down to his level.

“Eternity?” He repeats. “For eternity, you’ll cripple those who you should be guiding? For eternity, you’ll separate people from their families and ruin their lives? For eternity, you’ll murder innocents? If this vaunted eternity you speak of can be reached by being like you, I can only weep at how hollow it must be!”

Liu Jin pushes Ruan Goutin away, throwing him to the ground. His hands feel dirtied just from touching his robes.

Ruan Goutin weakly coughs on the floor. There is not a trace of the menacing aura he once wielded. He is nothing more than a weak, pathetic figure. “You will not get away with this,” he promises. “You may have taken my cultivation away, but do you really think you can escape? Foolish child! You have made an enemy of the Eternal Raging Valley!”

“An enemy?” Liu Jin snorts. “Do you think me a fool? Who made that wound on you if not the Eternal Raging Valley?”

Silence.

Silence is all the answer Ruan Goutin is willing to give

It is the only thing that made sense. How else could an Emperor Realm cultivator belonging to one of the top sects of the Empire be wounded? Had his wound been made by someone else, Ruan Goutin would have surely asked help from his own Sect. An attack against a person like him is not the sort of thing the Eternal Raging Valley can ignore.

However, Ruan Goutin had not done that.

Instead, he had done his best to squeeze as many resources as he could from Five Bats City.

“There was a meeting in the Eternal Raging Valley a few months ago. You annoyed one of your superiors, and by doing so, you were treated as you have been treating your disciples. That is my best guess. Judging by your expression, it seems I am right.”

In fact, Ruan Goutin was probably never particularly popular in his Sect. Otherwise, he’d have never ended up in Five Bats City. It might look good for the Eternal Raging Valley to have an Emperor here, but the Dragon Veins in Five Bats City are nothing special. That would make cultivation particularly hard for someone in the Emperor Realm.

“Shut up!” Ruan Goutin screams. His fist bangs against the floor. “What could someone like you possibly know? I was loyal! I was worthy! Why should my reward for all my contributions be this! No! I refuse to accept this! I refuse!”

“Whether you refuse or not, the truth will remain as is. You have lost your cultivation. You are so weak a child could kill you. This is not something that can ever be repaired. You’ll live what remains of your life like this.”

“What remains of my life?” Ruan Goutin laughs hollowly. “Are you so gutless you will not kill me with your own hands?

“What purpose would killing you serve? You are no longer a threat to anyone. Rather, you are now at the mercy of everyone. To stain myself with such a miserable life would only release you.” Liu Jin turns away from the seething Branch Master. He takes a moment to look at the room. “Am I correct in assuming you have a secret way out of here?”

“Seeking to escape?” Ruan Goutin’s words lack the same energy as before. The anger is there, yet now it is laced with something else.

Defeat.

“The opposite. I was going to suggest you escape. I am fairly sure I can disable the barrier. What do you think will happen then? You will tell your disciples to kill me. I can see it in your eyes. However, what do you think your disciples will do when they see you as you are now? Weak and helpless. Which of us do you think they’ll strike first?”

Ruan Goutin looks at Liu Jin in impotent rage.

“I will say this once more. Do you have a way of leaving this room without alerting anyone? If so, this is your one chance to use it. Ditch your fine robes and anything of value. Those will only attract thieves. The only thing you can do right now is live the rest of your life as a beggar.”

Liu Jin looks at the door.

“Failing that, you can choose to be here when I open that door. I daresay your disciples will thank me for it.”

Liu Jin kneels down, meeting Ruan Goutin’s blue eyes with his red ones.

“What will you choose?”

~~~

“I am pleased to say I have finished the procedure. Branch Master Ruan wishes not to be disturbed for the time being.”

“I see,” Ren He says. Perhaps not surprisingly, he looks a little unsure.

“I have been told by Branch Master Ruan that I am to take my servant and leave immediately.”

“Is that so?” Yan Chao is the one who speaks this time. Liu Jin does not let his doubtful voice bother him.

“If you wish to ascertain the veracity of my words, you only need to enter the throne room. I am sure Branch Master Ruan will have no problem making his words clear, though I cannot speak of what his mood will be.”

Ren He and Yan Chao stay silent for a while. The aura of an Emperor Realm cultivator still emanates from the throne room.

“I think,” Ren He says, breaking the silence. “That we must do as Branch Master Ruan says. If he has ordered his doctor to be thrown out, who are we to argue?”

“I think you are quite right, Ren He.”

Liu Jin and Lei Kong walk out through the front door minutes later.

~~~