The three men brought out various swords and assumed defensive postures. The two men who hadn't broken their noses slowly spread out to the left and right. A silence descended as the two groups stared at one another.

A crack filled in that air as the man with the broken nose wrenched it back into place. He pointed his sword down and brought his hands together in respect.

“Look, we have no quarrel with the Thousand Season Sect.” He said while looking pointedly at the insignia on Rong's robe. "We were tasked with chasing a criminal and thought the young man there was posing as a disciple to escape justice. The criminal we were chasing has employed such tactics before. But now that an esteemed elder such as yourself has shown us to be at fault, we will of course back off"

"Well that seems perfectly reasonable." Said Elder Rong. "There is no reason to escalate the situation over a little misunderstanding."

The three men visibly relaxed though they kept their weapons out. Felix glanced up at the elder's face to see that he was smiling serenely.

He is still stroking his goddamn beard in this kind of situation! How could he buy that bullshit?

Then the elder blurred. Felix wiped his head around to see Elder Rong appear above the core cultivator to the right. The surprised man's eyes opened wide and swiped his sword in an upward arc. The blade writhed with shadows and Felix was horrified as the Elder met it with the tip of a sandaled foot. The blade and sword seemed to pause for a moment as a buzzing sound filled the air. Then the arm holding the sword exploded.

As the man opened his mouth to scream, Elder Rong seemed to lazily reach out his hand. A giant stone shuriken appeared at the elder's fingertips, flying forth to crush the man's chest with a sickening crunch.

The elder then turned his body to face the attackers now rushing to grabbed Felix. He seemed to accelerate toward the ground. Rong's impact caused a shock wave of earth to ripple out, leaving a shattered and broken landscape. The wave of earth flowed around Felix to throw the men back several meters.

As the man on the left got up, Rong seemed to appear in front of him with a mace so large that it almost seemed comical.

The man barely deflected the first strike and his arm went numb. He was unable to bring his sword back up before the following strike took his head off.

Elder Rong turned to face the last man whose nose still dripped blood. The man just finished gulping down a dark pill and his eyes slowly took on a crazed cast. He stared at Rong with hatred.

“This feels quite odd," Said Rong casually. "I haven't killed anyone for threatening one of our disciples before. The feeling is quite novel."

"Shameless bastard. I might not be able to kill you but do you think you can keep me from killing one of your disciples."

Elder Rong's serene expression broke into a hateful grin

"You fucking imperials are always the same."

The man said nothing more as his body flushed from the pill. With a roar, the man ran toward Felix. His sword coming down in furious arcs. Fire coiled along the blade and continued forward as flaming snakes.

Elder Rong appeared in front of Felix, deflecting the first snake with a casual wave of his mace. The wake of the flaming snake left a trail of burning destruction. The man was undeterred and fiery serpents rained forth, each one larger and more vivid than the previous. Then with slow deliberate steps, Rong began walking toward the man. For every inch, the elder's mace spun to deflect a barrage of snakes.

The man's veins bulged and he actually began to smoke. He let out a scream as his left eye actually exploded but he kept swinging his sword.

Finally Rong was right in front of the man and their weapons met. Rong's deflections slowly turned into hammering blows. The man sunk into the ground till he was up to his knees. Then the elder let forth a yell and broke through the man's sword, the man's head, and continued on until the mace was buried in a smoking crater.

With a sigh, Rong turned around to look at Felix who was dry heaving at this point. Felix had already thrown up when the second man's head had been removed from his body. There wasn't anything left in his stomach at this point.

Felix held the now shaking Chung with one arm and used his other to wipe the throw up from his mouth. Rong glanced down at the corpse for a few seconds then shook his head. He turned around with a serene smile back on his face. The elder walked up and stopped right in front of Felix.

Felix just tried to keep his eyes off the three corpses on the ground.

That man's arm just exploded. The sound of his chest caving in, it was just-

“So, my boy. How did you offend those imperials?" said elder Rong, leaning forward until he was at eye level. "Did you discover a priceless weapon? Mmm? Or offend a young master?"

"I- what?" said Felix as he tried to follow the elder's words. His eyes wandered to the last man killed.

There isn't even anything left of that one. Just bloody mush.

"Hey, Felix." Said Rong, snapping his fingers in front of Felix. "What happened? Why were you being chased by an imperial task force?"

Felix finally focused on Elder Rong.

"Imperial task force?"

"Oh you don't know? I will explain after we solve this mess. Now, where is Xue?" Said Rong. He glanced down at the shivering Chung. Rong reached down and tapped the boy's on the chest in three spots. Felix felt Chung go limp. "Best if he is asleep. Now, where, is, Xue?"

Felix took a deep breath and reined in his emotions.

"An Onooka Clansman came out of the woods while we were returning to the Sect. Xue told us to run while she stayed. The Onooka clansmen caught up and offered to help. I asked him to take the other two recruits and run. A few minutes later, those three men caught up to us. Then you showed up."

"Mmmm, then none of them should be nascent souls. Good." Said elder Rong. He waved his hand and a giant sword appeared next to them, floating in mid air. "Xue should be fine then. Let's go rescue those recruits." He reached forward and grab Felix by his shoulder.

A moment later Felix found himself sitting on a sword with Elder Rong, flying above the trees. The land beneath them zipped down and he found time to think over what just happened.

Not good.

He turned to face Rong who was standing behind him on the sword, gazing into the distance.

“Um elder, shouldn’t we go help disciple Xue first?”

Elder Rong blinked and then glanced at Felix.

“That girl has caused enough trouble already. She deserves a little hardship. Besides, so long as she has enough time to prepare, she is stronger than even I am.”

Felix's eyes widened in surprise, horror forgotten.

“Ho-how is that possible? She just entered core formation. Aren’t you on the verge of breaking through to Nascent Soul.”

The Elder smiled bitterly. “You will see when we meet up with her. Oh! I think I have found the recruits and the Onooka Clansmen."

Rong then jumped off the sword. Felix looked over the edge to see the elder pull out his mace and crush one of the three men attacking the Onooka clansmen. Felix closed his eyes as another scene of carnage took place.

A few minutes later, Felix was on the ground as Rong and the Onooka clansmen tried to converse. This was made difficult as the Onooka had lost his chalkboard, his chalk, and an arm. After much miming, Rong finally convinced the man to come back to their sect for healing after this.

The two recruits were also knocked out by Rong after the fighting. The elder told the Onooka Clansman that they were going to get Xue and asked if he would watch the three recruits in the meantime. The man looked down at his missing arm but slowly nodded.