1

It’s been a week since Kilian, with assistance from Mei, took over the Hong An Sect under his rule. The event was concealed, keeping the suspicions low from the outside. Inside the palace was operating as usual while everyone constantly thinking about dealing with the uncertainty once it eventually unseals.

“Hey!” Xiong's loud voice can be heard from outside of the residence’s door.

“What?” Kilian’s loud voice replied, setting the katana aside on his desk.

“Got a bag of mail,” Xiong said, tossing the mailbag.

“Omph…That’s a lot of mail.” He shuffled through the bag before pouring it onto the table.

“It’s a week's worth,” Xiong responded before leaving.

Kilian slumped back to his seat, opening tons of mail, “Crazy, it's already been a week,” He muttered. Hong An’s monetary expenses have been stabilized thanks to a few more small sacs of gold coins he took from the chest. He did bring it over to the palace’s residence while keeping the whole chest in an undisclosed location. He couldn’t count the number of coins due to the vast amounts occupying the chest and were packed into tons of small sacs, fully stocked, inside the chest. He only supplied around two small sacs to stabilize the budget. Within the week since the front lot and the wall were repaired, including the main palace’s roof and the front gates.

He only went to his house once this past week, to move all his stuff to the palace. Since that day, he never returned and insisted on not residing there anymore as there was no purpose left to be there. It was vacated the same day. All the items are organized and placed in the spare room upstairs.

The mail overview took another hour to finish and within that, he only needed to send only a dozen letters back to the recipient in the area. Kilian was able to rehire a mailman who left around two years ago. His return sent a surprise to the residents living within Hong An’s territory, but under Kilian’s insistence, he can’t say his reason for returning other than they wanted him back.

“Here are the dozen you need to send and your fees,” Kilian said, handing him five silvers.

“Anything else to deliver before I leave?” The mailman asked.

“No, sir. That’s it.” Kilian nodded.

The mailman leaves the residence, and Kilian grabs his katana along with his conical hat and walks out of the residence. He dashed to the main garden before leaping on one of the columns and flew into the air. Landing on the lot behind the library, Kilian witnessed Xiong meditating under the tree. Selina is afar doing her casting training with Roland watching her as he is working on his practice.

Oh he started to grow some hair and a beard. I forgot. He noted the change as he descended down to the hill.

He sat down near her and grabbed her notebook, viewing the page she was on. He scrambles a couple of pages of her, where she jotted down her progress. Man, I told her to work on her defenses. He thought after seeing one of the pages where her offense simulation was significantly high and threatening. While her defense is only equal to a layer of concrete. He turned back to the page when he first found it open and left the notebook back on the spot.

He moves up near the trunk of the tree, inhaling and exhaling a few cycles of fresh air. He relaxes his body, closing his eyes, letting nature take its course healing his mind.

2

Sometime later.

“Kilian?! Kilian!” some faint noise nearby.

Kilian resisted the quietness till he heard another call of his name and he opened his eyes.

“What is it?” He asked while his aura was circling around him.

“The Jianke Sect is here?!” Xiong said fast.

Kilian went high alert, dissipating the circling aura and immediately jolted up, “Of all days, why now!?” He then asked if they knew who exactly from the Jianke Sect arrived at the front gates.

“Feng Liuxian.” She paused briefly, “Him alone.”

“Fuck.” Kilian muttered.

<< Damn it bad timing. This is too soon. >>

I agree. Do you know Feng?”

<< Yes, I do. Similarly, the King treated us like shit. He is the general rank so he is a veteran in experience. >>

That shouldn’t hurt.

He nodded and told Xiong to tell the gate openers to open the doors. She took off and Kilian immediately put on his conical hat. Then proceeds dashing in the air directly to the landing spot in the garden.

Kilian flashed step back into his residence, startling Huo and Qiao, who were downstairs sitting at the dining table, reading and playing board games.

“My goodness, sorry.” He closed the door and sat back down at his office, leaving his conical hat hanging on his back and stashed a few documents from the table into the drawer.

Confused, Huo paused on the board game and seeing what Kilian was up to, “Why are you rushing?”

“We have a worrisome guest arriving shortly,” He said rushingly.

“Oh, you know who it is?”

“Feng Liuxian. Uninvited appearance.”

Huo paused momentarily, “I see well okay, We will be upstairs then. Be careful,” She said sincerely and went back to Qiao, who was not pleased with it, but Huo forcefully insisted and both carried their board games upstairs. Kilian ignored Qiao’s murmurs as they walked up.

Qiao has been insanely annoying to Kilian since the day, and the attitude is spreading like wildfire across the whole palace. Reactions shared his opinion of her with a few just bluntly wanting her out of sight.

Kilian leans back with his feet on the desk till he hears a knock on the door, “Come in!”

The door opens, revealing a clean-shaven man wearing headwear in an entirely black robe with no patterns except the Jianke sect’s emblem on both of his upper arms.

Yep. The sword pierced through the diamond perimeter. There’s no mistake, it’s them. He noticed the observation, hoping Mei was watching.

<< It’s been so long since I last saw one. The entire black robe is not to be messed around amid his general rank.>>

What’s the color of the ordinary members in the Jianke Sect? I mean soldiers.

<< Gray but you will find out eventually since a general is here. >>

Well wish me luck.

Feng Liuxian seems surprisingly baffled as he glares at Kilian suspiciously, “Where’s the leader?” He looks around the residence. “Everything has changed since the last visit.”

Kilian raises his hand, “That was two months ago…You talking to me.” Both shook heads with Kilian’s hand gripping tightly.

“I’m sure not mistaken because you ain’t him,” Feng said, giving a piercing stare, and feeling the tightness of Kilian’s grip.

Ah, fuck it. He’ll find out anyway for his awareness right when he enters the room. He concluded. Mei doesn’t think it’s a good idea.

“Your man is dead. That was a while ago,” he muttered, before cracking Feng’s hand, letting it go.

Suddenly Feng pulled his blade out, thrusting his blade towards Kilian’s neck. Kilian retaliated and unsheathed his sword from his waist, clashing with his blade. Feng grunted, forcing his blade in Kilian’s direction. Kilian returned with his push, thrust kicking his abdomen.

Feng crashed into the window, next to the door. “Hong An aren’t supposed to be swordsmen.”

“What about your guy? He is a sword wielder too,” Kilian said, well aware of how irritated Feng was. He sprinted towards Kilian and the two dueled after one another.

Kilian’s katana sliced through one of the vases. With the force of his blade, the shards were directed towards Feng. Feng dodged a couple and nearly missed the last shard, targeting his right eye. “Umph.” He slumped back, leaning against the wall after feeling he got hit at his right temple. He felt liquid around his temple when his fingers slightly rubbed above. “Bastard!” He yells aggressively, phantom stomping to the floor combining with one slash, focusing on Kilian.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Pretty fast, Kilian barely reacted as he got stuck by the phantom blast, sending it to the other end of the residence. Feng walks a little closer to the debris, demanding Kilian to surrender. “Let’s work this out-”

Boom.

A blast shot Feng while he was distracted. The blast violently pushed him through the wall and one of the two doors of the residence, crashing to the concrete in the hallway.

Kilian walks out of the smoke of debris with his blue glowing eyes. Part of his upper robe was ragged and his forehead barely bleeds. His robe is now soaked with blood, staining the light colors of the robe. The front was torn open, exposing a bit of his chest, revealing a critical wound coming from Feng’s slash.

“This isn’t over,” Feng said.

While he departs, Kilian blurted out rants as if he could hear it. Kilian monitors his wound while grabbing a first aid box from his shelf. He pops the cap of the antibiotic bottle open and pours over his wound. It was a sharp pain but kept his composure. Once the antibiotics spread all over the wound, he took a roll of bandage, removed his ragged robe, and began wrapping around his chest.

He then stood up from his seat and went upstairs, seeing Huo and Qiao continuously playing board games. Looking closely, it was a form of chess. Huo glares up after finishing her round, and Kilian gives her a nod, signaling the guest has left.

“Your wound,” Huo said.

“Just a flesh wound. I already treated it so it's fine,” Kilian said, not even focusing on Qiao, acting like she was not even there. “Just hang tight for a bit.” He then storms downstairs.

As Kilian walks out to the door, he is met by Xiong again, wearing an entirely black outfit with a mask, now in a panic yelling to him the group of Jianke sect under Feng is barging through the front lot. Just when the front lot got fixed. He furiously thought, mouth frowning. He sprints out with Xiong to the main hall. As he sprints, he lifts his conical hat to his head. “Have you told Roland and Selina?!” He exclaimed.

“I did, they were about to come up in a moment!” Xiong replied, lifting her mask, covering her mouth.

Both flashes stepped into the main palace. Xiong went in front of him, pointing through the door.“Keep your qi suppressed if you can,” Kilian whispered. The two peek through the hole, witnessing a massive formation on the front lot.

“Not again.” Kilian murmured and asked Xiong, “How much did you learn this past week?”

“We know you there!” yelled from outside, sounding like Feng.

“Well. Let’s just simplify it to mother nature,” Xiong whispered.

“Ok. Then prove it out there. Don’t go overboard.” Kilian looked around for another way out. He sees the hatch in the backend corner. Applying what they learned this past week, both suppressed their qi further to avoid detection as they slowly flew up. Being a triangular slope, both climbed to the pinnacle of the hall’s roof and peeked slightly above, estimating the formation at the front.

“Where are you gonna start?” He scoots back down, laying his back on the roof. He turned to his left to Xiong.

“To the right,” she said, pointing at it.

“Ok. Well, you will initiate and I’ll follow.”

“What will you do then?”

“Hold back time, wait for the other two…”

Kilian then sees the two coming from deep within the complex. “Hey,” Selina called.

“Shh…Get up here,” he whispered to the two while gesturing to suppress their qi.

Roland and Selina carefully leap up to the roof. The two peeked up, grasping the amount of Jianke soldiers present. “Around five hundred men at the front line,” Roland whispered, pulling out his book. Selina prepares the casting spell on her hands, ready to go.

“Are you gonna use your conical hat?” Xiong asks Kilian as her eyes glow yellow.

“I already am,” he said, turning his eyes purple. Are you ready? He asked Mei through the dark void.

<< Lock and load. I’ll provide your stamina imbalance. >>

As Xiong was about to initiate, Selina asked about Kilian’s bandaged chest. He pointed back, “Feng.”

“Open the door, now!! I’ll bust it in five-” Feng Shouted from the front lot.

Kilian gave a nod to Xiong, already articulating her fingers, generating sparkling electricity. “Four-”

Gusts start to wind up from afar in front of the four, flowing to her hands.

“Three-”

Xiong continuously at a rapid pace, set both of her hands in a rotated motion. The gusts coming to her are directed in a circular motion until the wind blows around the roof. Then she turned back around and unleashed it on the right before Feng could count down to two.

The tornado grew bigger rapidly as it descended to the ground floor, and it roared across its path symbolizing like a bull about to ram its target. The tornado caused the formation to disperse, and Kilian jumped off from the roof pulling up his hat, gripping his sword up in the air, and letting go of his suppression.

Bright, sky blue light exerted out from his blade so immense it almost led the tornado to go off in direction. The mix of sky blue and purple energy overwhelms the blade and exerts unsuppressed energy, reaching the half-length of a football field.

<< Woah woah! It’s gonna strike the wall >>

More damage if I interfere with it!

Selina stood up on the roof, casting her spell to redirect the tornado back inside to the front lot. She leaped down to the front lot, involving hand to hand with the soldiers.

Kilian twisted the hilt horizontally and unleashed it at the crowd. The abundance of energy gushes away from the blade significantly fast, striking the ground before any could escape from its path. Like a knife piercing through, the energy slashed across the whole front lot horizontally and cracked the side walls.

Fuck. Man. He grunted and noticed the crack had spread outwards into parts of Jinsu. “Oh no.” he muttered in horror, realizing it’s gonna blow from under the cracks.

“Guys, get out of there! It’s gonna blow” He yelled at the other three to depart.

Roland was on the battlefield with his levitating book, summoning a barrage of projectiles at one of the clusters of soldiers. After hearing Kilian’s yell, he dashed across the other side of the lot, grabbing Selina. Hurriedly looking around, he sees Xiong. He immediately runs towards her. “Xiong! Grab my hand now!” She notices the crack is about to blow and runs up to Roland.

“Umph…” Xiong immediately stopped, puking blood out of her mouth. She tried to hold her blood in and glanced down, seeing a large sword had pierced her chest. In a state of shock, ignoring the paralysis effect coming from the blade, she used the blood from her palms, splattering it directly at the attacker’s eyes.

The attacker lets go, and she turns around to find the attacker to be Feng. She pulled out the sword and struck him followed by a blast of mini meteors. Feng screamed in pain as being burned by the burning rocks. Xiong throws the sword using the hilt, knocking him out into the blazes. She then ran back to Roland.

<< They ain’t gonna make it >>

Fuck. Kilian went flying downwards to reach the three.

It was too late. Boom! A massive explosion ignited below the cracks. Exploding in full erect, widening the front lot, shattering the walls into rubble. Many of the remaining Jianke sect soldiers fell into the opening to their deaths.

The blast exerted outward, striking multiple homes and buildings outside of the palace’s perimeter. It was so immense that the shockwave blasted all four away. Glaring back realizing about to crash hard toward the garden, he turned back upward seeing Xiong also get blown away, but she plummeted much faster than him with blood leaking out of her chest. Roland and Selina both also heading in her direction.

Preparing to crash, he braced himself and clenched his teeth as he was about to hit hard.

He then opened his eyes and looked around, figuring out he was barely saved by Mei. Thank goodness.

<< Your stamina and body organs are unstable. I can only keep you up for so long after deploying that attack. Did you prepare all of this? >>

Yes and no. What I didn’t anticipate is the instability and capability of that attack when it deployed from the blade. I didn’t know it got this large since my only one attempt. Kilian gets up despite the pain inflicted on his entire back.

<< Your body is dealing with levels of stress too quickly. Do that and you could just be an accidental casualty >>

Well I'm gonna get there quickly. Gonna need some temporary boost for this moment. He sprinted in the direction where Xiong was relatively headed. Then he felt someone was tailing him. Gripping his sword and swirling in one-eighty, he clashed with Feng Liuian. Whose face is burned, exposing parts of his skull. “I guess we both are insane aren’t we, in our last supply,” Kilian muttered, blood dripping from his nose. “What are you gonna do about it now huh?” he added.

“Our fight…is not over,” Feng said with a hollow voice that could barely be interpreted.

“No, it already has.” Kilian generates blue aura around his blade and slammed the edge of the blade with his forearm.

Crack.

“Ugh!” Feng grunted as Kilian then thrust his finger to his right eye through the socket, disabling him.

“It is done,” Kilian said, piercing his katana through Feng’s blade, shattering it. Striking his right shoulder midair.

SPLAT.

Blood splashed everywhere, and the blade cleanly slashed through Feng’s right shoulder, cutting off his right arm. Feng collapsed onto the floor, paralyzed before he could grasp that his left arm had been cut off. He struggles to lift his head only to turn to his left, Feng, in horror, can’t get a word out of his mouth, even though his mind is yelling. Kilian then steps on his mutilated left shoulder, “You ruined my fucking day. And broke the chains. Jinsu is now in a hidden crisis thanks to you and Jianke.”

Feng expresses despair and begs for mercy, finally getting his words out of his mouth, “Wait Wait! Let me go! Don’t you want-”

SLIT.

The ball rolled across the hallway.

Kilian lets his foot off and walks to the dismembered head and stomps on it, splattering blood to the roof and concrete path. He then felt a tingle in his head

“No, not now,” he muttered weakly. His eyes are getting heavier.

<< Your stamina is fluctuating quickly. >> Mei Zhan said concerningly.

I have to make it there.

<< Only for a little while longer before you shut down. >>

Mei gave Kilian a temporary recovery. His eyes went lighter, and he jogged through the hallways reaching the library. He went over the railing and went behind the library heading to the training site.

He sees Huo and Selina with their heads slumping onto her.

“What happened?” Kilian gasped for air.

“She’s gone!” Huo yelled as tears flowed off her face.

“No no no no!!” Kilian muttered in dismay before a massive pain throbbing his whole body. He slumped to the ground, cracking his knees.

“Sir!” Roland went up to Kilian.

Kilian collapses to the floor and falls head to the ground, staring at Xiong’s lifeless stare before losing consciousness.