1

An excruciating loud boom can be heard from afar, and everyone stops, viewing the distance. Vertical wide white beam shot upward into the sky, striking the clouds, and dispersing any in its surroundings.

"What the hell?" Bloodied Kilian grunted and picked himself up from the concrete, looking afar, realizing trouble.

||[Scanning Qi…]

[Match Confirmed: Huo]||

"Oi, we not fucking done." His opponent blurted. He, too, was bloodied from the head down.

|| Feng’s Brother:

Health: Unstable

Stamina: Unstable||

“You had more guts, than your Brother Feng. I’ll give you that.”

“Could care less…” Feng’s brother said.

Both dashed towards each other, clashing their blades to one of the other. Both confronting with their eyes piercing at each other, spewing vengeance.

||Target Acquired

Head: 48%

Groin: 89%||

Feng’s brother hammered Kilian’s face. He felt the blow into his brain from the impact. Fuck. I felt that moving.

||[Injury Detected:]

Shows the brain diagram, followed by the impact damage.

[Required treatment]||

In return, Kilian gave him an abrupt left jab to his head and simultaneously kicked his groin, disabling him from moving further. He abruptly collapsed onto the concrete. Landed heavily on his head, busting his skull.

Kilian stood there silent while blood dripped from his nose. “Now you done it, I guess I’ll show you,” He said gracefully, swirling his sword in a clockwise motion, triggering the blade’s edges to transform into illuminating white. Vast waves of energy began to develop from thin air, sucking up all the scattered concrete debris. The waves surrounded the blade as he went into a stance, and his blade pointed into the air with his right hand gripping the hilt. The energy surrounds himself and his feet.

||[Danger: Uncontrollable Stamina]||

Leave it on the damn corner, stop blurting directly.

Feng’s brother regained some of his motion and strugglingly stood himself up. The stamina took over, ignoring the blunt head trauma earlier. He witnessed the energy's monstrosity exerted on Kilian’s blade. “Oh, you can get up. Progress is legitimate isn’t it?”

Cough.

Feng’s brother coughs, puking blood. Can’t pull out a sound from his mouth.

“What’s that?”

Feng’s brother starts to choke on his blood.

Kilian seems slightly disappointed. It was all entertaining at the beginning, but it fell to brothers like brothers. “What a pain, you were doing so well and now here we are…Just like your damn brother!”

Sounds of boom echo from his blade attracted to hit the target, Kilian then grips his sword, directing the blade to point down at the opposite side of his torso, and then gives a swift upward slash. The energy rams through its path towards Feng’s brother, who didn’t bother to nudge over.

The slash broadens into a waveform of attack, catching up speed, striking Lang’s brother. It dashed towards one of the palaces before exploding, sending the remaining structure into collapse.

Debris covered all of what was in front of Kilian, leading him to dash toward the debris area and disperse it. He looked behind him towards below, seeing Lang’s brother lying on the surface, “Good riddance.” He muttered.

“House…of…Yun will come…for you…” Kilian stopped and turned back after hearing mumblings but was able to decipher his struggling words. He walked back towards him. He summoned a green orb directly in front of his palm and blasted it on his back.

Kilian then kicked him over, letting him lay on his back. “That would keep you talking till your last breath. Tell me the details.”

Before he could even react, Kilian placed his heavy boots onto his legs, causing him to scream in yell. Kilian blasts another green orb in other parts near the legs to keep Feng’s brother stable.

“Alright! I’ll tell you,” He surrenders in agonizing pain. Kilain gestured his fingers to hurry him up. “The Raid of Jinsu days ago, we got help to destroy this town from our friends at Yun Empire.”

Kilian, impatient, lifts his sword, hovering the tip of the blade above his eyes. “Don’t fucking stop there. Continue. No one has time for your damn stuttering.”

He gulped before continuing, “They know what happened to Hong An after you came into the picture. They worked with us to annihilate you…”

“Hey! Hey! God, damn it.” Kilian grunted and stepped back from the now corpse of Feng’s brother. “Well since you died before I got all the information, might as well get annihilated then,” Kilian said before slashing a standing beam onto the corpse, disintegrating it to ashes and dispersed into thin air.

|| +480 XP

Level 0: 2800/4000

200 remaining for revealing of Level 1 attributes||

He left the scene and flew towards where he saw the large white beam in the sky. As he sped up he saw Selina dashed past him. A little concerned, he sped up and landed right as she did.

“Oh, you here.”

Kilian nodded and walked in to observe the damage. All of the walls crumbled to the floor, planks everywhere and he looked ahead and above only seeing a piece of the structure’s frame remaining left erect. He lifted the heavy roof panel and threw it away, “Check if there are any survivors or anything valuable we can benefit from.”

From afar he sees a familiar hat. He ran up to it and jaws dropped. No, not again. No No. He shook his head, trying to dive into those thoughts. “Selina!” He yelled.

“What’s wrong?” Selina asked. “Oh, man. You got blood everywhere.”

“I’m fine. I’ll get your treatment once this is over,” he said, passing her Huo’s cowboy hat. She looked at him showing confusion, and momentarily her gasp came out screeching from her throat. Both looked at each other and nodded, the two went in separate routes around the ruined palace to find Huo. He cuts through the rubble, tossing it away from his path, and scavenges for traces and none to his despair. Out of place, he sees a body lying under rubble. He can see the legs and the face but the rest is under a pile of concrete and wood.

||Not found||

He hastened to the spot and dragged all the dusty particles from the crumbled concrete and soiled woods. He hoped it was Huo, but to his dismay it was somebody. Selina came by and shook her head, meaning Huo was nowhere to be found. Kilian showed her what he found, and she glanced over here and immediately recognized it.

||Huo Not Match.

Unknown individual||

“That’s the one who fought Huo,” She kneeled feeling her neck, “Yeah, she's still alive. We need to take her in. What do you say?”

As Kilian is deciding he sees footprints that lead back to the direction of where the border is relatively located. He follows the footprints briefly before going empty. He faces back to Selina, giving her a thumbs up.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He closely observed the visible footprints and see it’s shaped like sandals or small footwear. Then lifting his foot, Kilian observes the creases and asks Selina to lift her boots. It doesn’t match. Also, it’s on flat ground and not some mud. In his mind can only be one answer somebody who must have a form of fire or what can burn passed onto the ground as its footprints. The end of the footpath means the captor has flown away.

Selina confronts Kilian and tells him she's gonna depart back to Hong An Palace and get the clinic ready. He nodded, and as she was about to leave, Kilian called her. She returns his attention, seeing him a little down and rain starts to pour.

“Promise you don’t ever disappear on me, ok?” He said sincerely.

She returned with a smile and eyebrows raised, “It’s a promise.” Selina said slowly and soothingly, calming Kilian. He wipes off tears from his eyes, “One more thing. How are the others right now?”

“They're fine. The first battle has finished. I’ll be there if you need me,” Selina states and leaps into the air flying towards the direction of Hong An Palace.

Kilian pule while observing the ruins. As the rain poured harder, he howled as all he could into the night sky, causing shockwaves due to his qi losing balance and exponentially increasing beyond his capacity. The shockwaves vibrated outward and disintegrated nearby debris and rubble.

He continued for minutes till all the emotions were gone.

The whole ruins have been effortlessly cleaned off except the base floor. Surprising in fact. Kilian heads up to the end of the base wood floor. It’s elevated as it should be since the stairs don’t exist anymore, leaving it as a platform. He leaps on top of it. He felt like an ordinary floor making his curiosity a priority. As he endlessly walked all over the surface of the platform, he slowly started hearing creaking noise.

The sound was scattered at first before it became concentrated. He keeps walking in random directions, following the sound till it concentrates on the center of the platform. He pulled his sword in front of him before innately jumping into the air, charging his sword, and directing the blast toward the center of the platform.

Piercing through the wooden surface, he heard sounds of rattling and whining following metals clanking. A wide line appears and runs towards where his blade pierced into. The floor begins to widen. Kilian gets out of the way and observes the floor opening from above. Light switches on following the spiral staircase heading downwards. From the air, he can see the floor.

||Floor - 50 ft||

“Well, I have nothing to lose.” He drops himself down to the floor, free falling passing through the staircase making visibility like curving lines.

Stomp.

He landed roughly on the floor, cracking the solid metal floor. “Whoops,” He muttered.

||Location Discovered: Jianke Basement||

Once he landed, the darkness further inwards illuminates as it detects Kilian’s presence. What lies in front of him is an entire discovery he has to make for the time being. He walked in and was confronted by a tabletop podium. The envelope is on top and a pen.

Kilian walks up to it and sees an emblem carved into the tabletop podium’s wood material. He sees the sword piercing the diamond shape. He looked around and opened the envelope. “Fucking Jianke. Good riddance.” He muttered before reading the letter.

As a friend and demonstration of our loyalty, this gift is the definition of what our cooperation and your commitment have brought us. I offer my gratitude as this is the best I can offer. Please take this as an accomplishment for keeping Jinsu in our hands. Take it as you wish.

Sincerely,

Valeria Y. Yun

Mother of The House of Yun

Yun’s Head of State.

“So, he wasn’t lying. The House of Yun…” Kilian crumbled the envelope and folded the letter, putting it tightly in his inner pockets. He shoved the tabletop podium off of the desk, shattering it to bits. Then, he headed off to the base, exploring the gifts Valeria had offered to the Jianke Sect.

2

Discovering the place shouldn't take that long. The gifts Valeria offered went beyond Kilian’s low expectations and was surprised that some of the technology exists in this world. He then stood beside a row of four vehicles. All black unmarked trucks. He is flabbergasted at how bizarre the world is, and vehicles now into the picture bring more of his curiosity. All crew cabs are equipped with offroad wheels and seemingly state-of-the-art quality.

||LHA Bulle 800

Year Model: 130||

Assuming all four are the same, he went into one of them. The seats were extremely comfortable. Proper foot space and the whole dashboard contains a center screen console. That’s the most techy it can go compared to the rest of the minimalist design. The front, including himself, is a three-seater front row. A bench seat followed by the passenger seat. The bench seat is pushed back towards the rear slightly, giving enough space for a center cup holder and remaining foot space. Glancing around at the features of the truck, he then looks for the key fob. He scans around the steering wheel, noticing the keyhole. He pulled the sun visor down.

Kilian grasps the key fob from the sun visor. He gave the truck a start.

Clank. V-vvv.

||Lack of Power||

“Shit.” He said, got out of the war, and opened the latch under the hood. He observed and opened one of the terminal caps from the car battery. He felt the terminal post and no sparkles. Since it’s brand new, he opened the other terminal cap. He generates sparkles surrounding both of his hands and goes to the positive first with his right and left hand on the negative.

Kilian grunted momentarily till he could feel the battery had been full. Then he lets go of the terminal posts and puts back the terminal caps. He sees [V8] on the engine’s cover before closing the hood and tries starting the truck again.

VROOM.

A roar came from the engine. It just started the first time as the odometer popped up, reading zero miles. When he sat back hearing the car for the first time in a long while, someone appeared from the basement's entrance, so he shut off the truck and confronted who arrived.

“Oh, great, you're here. Come in.”

Roland and Fredrich walked in.

“I’ve seen some of these in the texts we have but never in person.” Roland is fascinated by the contents of the basement.

Fredrich seems unfazed. “How does Jinsu have stuff like this? Who does this belong to?”

Kilian showed him the emblem seal banner he found, “Jianke sect. A loyalty gift from the House of Yun.”

Fredrich stopped after hearing the House of Yun.

“You okay?” Kilian turned slightly back.

Fredrich shook his head, “Who leads the House of Yun?”

“That would be Valeria Y. Yun.”

“She is alive after all, Good riddance…” Fredrich muttered.

“You seem startled. Do you know her?”

He doesn’t seem to have a choice to talk about it, “I’m an exile from the North, that was seventeen years ago. I came here and have been working as Jinsu’s blacksmith and sword crafter. Both of us had a duel. I survived but didn’t think she would survive that long.” Fredrich walks up to Kilian’s ear and grasps his arm, “How did it come to this?”

“We both have a common enemy. They took Huo and your previous life.” He let go of his arm, “But keep in mind. It says in the letter that she is the head of state. So, we can’t be certain she planned this whole operation,” Kilian said and handed the letter to Fredrich, “till we have more evidence.”

Fredrich reads the letter before passing it back to Kilian, “Do what you want with it. I don’t need to keep it.”

Kilian took the letter back and placed it in his inner pockets. Switching topics he walks back to the truck, now claiming as his, “Since it’s fair and we won this battle, We should take their stuff.” He pointed to everything in the basement.

“Everything?” Roland heard.

Kilian nodded, “Despite there being four trucks here is what is called. Three of us can do the job and take three trucks. Unless one of you is gonna call someone else to assist us, I don’t mind that.”

He turned on his truck and drove out of the parking spot, stopping next to Fredrich, “We can place the stuff on the trucks and the back of the trunk. If you don’t know how to drive, I can teach you the basics.”

Roland raised his hand, “I don’t know how to.”

“Today’s your lucky day then.” Kilian sarcastically said and pulled the second truck out, parking it parallel to his truck. He turned it off and got off, gesturing to Roland to get in the driver's seat.

Roland climbed up to the driver's seat. Kilian jumped to the passenger seat, pointing Roland to the brakes and pedals.

“How do you turn on the car?” Roland asked

Kilian pointed to the sun visor, and Roland pulled it down revealing the key fob. He then followed his finger and pushed the key into the hole, turning it.

The truck roared, and Roland’s hand shook slightly..

“That’s it. Don’t do anything just watch because we ain’t leaving this place yet,” He pointed to the gear shifter and explained the letters, “ Right now we are in P which is parking, R is for reverse, N is for neutral, and D is drive. That’s it, while the rest is not your concern.” Then both leave the truck, and Kilian, all three gather around the gifts and figure out what to take.

"It's a lot of fucking stuff. Is any of this valuable?" Roland curiously asked while Fredrich and Kilian were staring at the open crate, containing rifles and pistols.

||89 Weapons total

42 Rifles

40 Pistols

7 SMGs

Weight: ~28 stones||

"You know what is contained in that crate?"

Kilian nodded confidently, "Nothing new at all." The contents in the crate reminded the forgotten memory he had a rifle similar to within the box in the jeep.

"Uhm, guys?!" Roland called after being ignored.

"Oh, sorry, what both of us are staring at next to the trucks is a good start." Kilian pointed at the crate and the shelves placed in front of it, containing mysterious boxes.

The three held a small talk, and all agreed to put the stuff they wanted onto their trucks and leave the fourth truck stocking other essentials for the Hong An palace. Then they all disperse gathering all the gifts in their respective trucks for who knows how long.