“Yield,” Liu Shuren warned, his voice devoid of emotion. “Otherwise, don’t blame me for being ruthless.”

He tightened his grip around his enemy’s neck, a red-haired muscular man with swollen cheeks. “I’ll give you three breaths to decide,” Shuren said, scorning him with eyes of glacial fury. The man struggled, veins bulging out his forearms as he grabbed Shuren’s wrist. Shuren looked behind him, staring down at the three teenagers.

“D-don’t you dare do anything to Raisa and t-the others!” The elder brother of Raisa said, but received a cold gaze from Shuren instead.

“Brother! Listen to him please!” Raisa begged, her lips quivering as tears gathered around her eyes. The other two, a girl and boy wearing torn leather clothing, could only clench their jaws and stay rooted in place. They didn’t dare run. They couldn’t.

The red-haired man’s fluffy ears, akin to a wolfen beast, drooped on his head, and he patted Shuren’s in surrender. “I-I yield!” Drool dribbled down his chin as he wheezed, limply hanging on Shuren’s hand choking him.

Shuren dropped him without a thought, shaking his hand.

The man, garbed in beige leather clothes, forced down the urge to gasp for breath, grabbing the pickaxe at his side. Rusty and dull, but it was more than enough for him. Arching his arms back for a cleave, he-

“Ignoble fool. You’re courting death.”

Shuren kicked him. His foot smashed into the man’s torso and threw him into the air. He sailed across the alleyway, slamming into the wall of a factory.

Soot drifted in the air. Shuren clicked his tongue, anger simmering in his glare. But it was not from the audacity of this pathetic man.

His clothes had gotten dirty.

“Stop! I’ll listen to you. Please don’t hurt him anymore!” Raisa cried out, running to her brother’s side. She kneeled at his side to check for his wounds.

Shuren sighed while shaking his head. “I have the right to beat you to death. Do you know why I didn’t? Because it’s our duty as elder brothers to look out for our siblings. But not once did you question your sister, nor use your own brain, graced by the Architect. Until your cracked ribs heal, think back on your idiocy,” he said with an expressionless face, yet his eyes were that of a predator looking down at prey. The natural arrogance of a cultivator staring down at mortals.

Her brother could only curl up into a ball, shivering in pain with his eyes squeezed shut.

He gazed at the girl, nodding at her towards her other friends. She hesitated, staring at her brother before seeing Shuren’s face.

Raisa knew. She had no choice. No choice but to listen to that man, that cultivator.

After seeing him beat down three of her older brothers from the orphanage; all muscular labourers and miners, with ease, she didn’t dare go against his words.

This was the stark difference between a cultivator and a mortal. To mortals, Qi was an unseen, intangible force, both everywhere yet nowhere. But cultivators could weave the intangible, transforming the heavenly Qi that graced this world into their own power.

Shuren was only a Rank 1; Qidense Realm cultivator, the very first realm that focused on mastering the concept of Qi. Just with simply reinforcing his body and limbs with Qi, he could exert an absurd level of martial prowess.

He walked gently to the trio of Vulfoans, walking past the unconscious body of two other unruly labourers.

Shuren’s gaze bore down on them, his hands clasped behind his back. “You know your sins. So let us get to the point,” he said with a voice sharp and cold.

“Kneel,” Shuren ordered. In a breath, his will was followed, and they all knelt to the floor. They ignored the cold pain as their knees slapped the soot-covered ground, paying no mind to the dirt on their clothes. Such was the condition of the Industrial District.

They had long been accustomed to living such a life ever since they moved to Cloud City.

He took out three sheets of paper from his robe, each paired with a crystalline carnelian pen. “You have two choices here. Either face punishment for your offence, or listen to what I say,” Shuren demanded, before lowering his tone further for his next four words. “Which will it be?”

The Raisa slammed her forehead to the ground. “Lord cultivator, we will do as you say!” she cried out, and her body kept trembling. Her friends followed along her actions.

Shuren’s left eye twitched, waving a palm as he said, “Raise your heads. I don’t order children to kowtow. It’s time for you to grow up and stop implicating your elder brothers.” Shuren passed them each a paper and pen. “Write a sincere apology and vow to change your ways.”

The three of them slowly raised their head, almost yelping in shock as Shuren kneeled to their height. His calloused hands passed them each a clean sheet of paper, speckless and pristine. When they grabbed it, their fingerprints inadvertently dirtied it.

“Write,” Shuren commanded, passing each of them a pen.

A carnelian jade pen, an exorbitant decorated object that further signified his wealth. One of the three, a teen boy with brown hair, could only think that if they could just pawn this item, they would be well off for at least a few months. In fact, he fidgeted with it for a moment, staring at its beauty.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Shuren could tell what he was thinking. But if the boy dared to take it for himself, he wouldn’t survive long in this city.

Today, they had learnt a grim lesson.

There were some people you simply couldn’t afford to offend.

“L-lord Cultivator, I have finished as you have r-requested,” Raisa said, barely composing herself. She held out her paper with her hands beneath it to ensure the paper wasn’t dirtied any more. The other two soon followed, handing over their papers and the ornate pens.

Flicking through the three written papers, Shuren nodded. “Very good. This is a sincere letter."

He felt the skin of his neck pricking, even though he couldn’t sense the aura of a spectator.

Enough time wasted, I need to prepare for the sect finale tomorrow.

“You’re mere orphans. You have no parents, no lineage, no wealth. You are nothing, so understand it well. Otherwise, your lives will be taken without remorse, and they’d have full justification for doing so,” Shuren said without sympathy, as if taking lives was a simple matter. Even if he didn’t enjoy scaring a bunch of orphans, that fear would allow them to survive longer.

“Do not tell Liu Yuxi of this incide-”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, you scumbag?!” A man yelled from across the alleyway.

Shuren craned his neck around, watching a tanned blue-haired man with a sheathed sword dash across the alleyway. The smell of freshly baked sweet bread wafted through the alleyway, coming from the bag he held.

What, it’s just a Stage 2 Qidense brat. Must be related to them. Still… I should’ve been able to detect him.

Naturally, there were stages to each rank. Rank 1; the Qidense Realm, made up of 12 stages, and only until you passed through each could you qualify to appear at the gates of Rank 2; Path Foundation.

And since Shuren was at a much higher stage than this person, he could easily discern the level of his strength based off the aura he gave off.

The blue-haired man recognised the trio, alongside the collapsed bodies. “You’re the kids from Kraus’s orphanage!” His golden eyes shook with rage, and he unsheathed his sword with haste, staring daggers towards Shuren.

“Shit, I still can’t examine it?!” Strangely enough, he barely muttered out these words, ignorant of Shuren’s hearing capabilities as a stronger cultivator. But when he glanced at the orphans and their unconscious brothers once more, he resolved himself.

“What the hell are you doing?!” With a guttural roar, he leapt forth. Running with his sword held in a back stance, the young man sliced towards Shuren’s neck.

He even ingested his Qi within his sword, strengthening his speed and strength by twofold. He shifted his stance midway, aiming for an overhead strike. The edge of the sword cleaved towards Shuren’s body and the-

Two fingers halted the blade.

“With such a temperament, you won’t live for long,” Shuren said with nonchalance, as if he was out in a stroll under Heaven’s Eye.

“Stop! Don’t attack him, he’s from the Liu Clan!” Raisa yelled out to warn him.

The vagrant swordsman smirked as he held his sword, glaring straight at Shuren’s cold blue eyes. “A cultivator of some esteemed family bullying a bunch of mortal orphans? You think your reputation won’t fall if word of this gets out?”

The blade of his sword crumbled and cracked into pieces as Shuren put more pressure.

And when Shuren clenched his right fist, all the vagrant swordsman saw was a blur of his fist, the world growing distant in front of him as his body flung away. He felt a cracking sensation at the centre of his chest, as a sharp pain manifested.

Shuren dropped the shards of the blade to the ground, slowly strolling towards him. "You are indeed correct, I do have a reputation to uphold. If word of this gets out."

Shuren raised his chin with conceit. This blue-haired man actually had some intellect, aiming for his weakness. Though cultivators like him had high status, especially combined with his lineage, they also had some rules to play by.

The broken pieces of the vagrant's sword crumbled under the weight of Shuren's foot, and with each sound of that step getting closer to him, his heart beat began rising. While keeled over in pain wheezing from his injuries, the vagrant ingested a simple white pill that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Stand up," Shuren commanded. "For raising a sword against me, I have every right to kill you." Shuren said as he tugged his robes, removing what bits of dust there was. He had just bought them to participate in the sect examinations tomorrow.

The vagrant backed off as he stood up, holding a hand to his chest, but his breathing stabilised by the second. "You hypocritical basta-"

The vagrant felt a stinging pain across his cheek, as a mark shaped like a hand imprinted on it. He was slapped with such force that he almost fell over, his neck bent to the side. But somehow, that slap hurt more than the punch to his now fractured ribcage.

Shuren heard a thud at his feet, and when he looked down, Raisa kowtowed at his feet, with even her ears drooping to the side. "Lord cultivator, please show mercy. I promise you we won't ever show our faces here again. If that's not enough, then I-"

"Didn't I say I don't make children kowtow? Stand up."

Shuren had seen enough.

"I'm in a good mood today, after succeeding to the final stage of the sect examinations. There's no need to bloody my new clothes." Shuren turned his back to the vagrant, instead patting the girl's shoulder. "Keep your siblings in line."

She felt her pocket feel just a touch heavier, but didn't dare to check. She only heard soft, delicate tinkling.

----------------------------------------

Shuren left the alleyway, with his hands held behind his back. Perhaps he may never return to this side of Cloud City again, so he took his time taking in the sights.

The next time they see my younger sister, Little Yuxi, they'll grovel down or even be subservient to her. It's time for her to understand how the world runs. The right hand holds the sword, the left hand holds the jade. With fear and respect, the heart rests at ease.

Before Shuren walked too far ahead, he glanced back at the blue-haired man. "You, tell me your name."

"Bloody arrogant young master, you think I don't know what you're getting at?" He retorted, standing his ground with the red-haired girl, still tense for a fight.

Shuren raised an eyebrow at his pathetic and strange insult, before ignoring it and walking away.

Though he said these words, Shuren held a sliver of respect for the weak man. Not many would willingly risk their life to help the downtrodden of the city, even if he had gravely misunderstood the situation in his idiocy.

As he left the alleyway in the Industrial District in Cloud City, he thought back once more on the sect finale tomorrow.

_I have no choice but to reach the top, destroying everyone in my way. If I can't become an inner disciple of the Seven Clouds Sect, or secure an alliance with them, my claim to become successor to the Liu Clan will dissipate.

If I fail to become successor, then it'll be impossible for me to avenge the Sword Saint.

----------------------------------------

Tez, the blue-haired vagrant, could finally let out a sigh of relief as Shuren left. “This is some dogshit luck! If that monster went too far, I wouldn’t even be able to come for the sect finale tomorrow!”

He wished to slump to the floor, but right now, the blaring red screen in front of him took his attention away.

A sweat trickled down his forehead.

**Do Not Engage: Liu Shuren - ???

Stats: ???

Realm: ???

Talisbody: Perfect Iron Grade

Talisoul:???

Talispirit:???

Calculating Threat Level…

Threat Level: S Grade