The others looked at me funny as I told them my cultivation realm — something not unexpected. It was odd for someone who was so obviously a scion of a large sect to be unable to reach the Second Realm. My younger brother had long since reached the Second Realm when the full resources of the Feng Family turned onto helping him grow.

They looked between each other and shrugged.

“That’s fine with us…” Poppy said. “You can still kill goblins fine, right? Are you a front line fighter?”

I hesitated before nodding.

“I killed two goblins back at their village.”

Poppy nodded.

“You and I will engage them. Anna and Eros will provide damage and support.” Then she paused. “Were there only two at that village?”

“That I saw.” I replied. Then I remembered to mention something important. “Also, when they were fighting me, they set the village ablaze. It probably burned down.”

Poppy nodded.

“The rest were probably out on a hunting trip. Good. That means they’ll be weakened from the hunt. Let’s get moving.”

Poppy started forward into the forest, and I joined the group, walking astride her.

It meant I left their rogue at my back, but the others didn’t walk forward until I joined side by side with Poppy. I respected their paranoia.

“So, what were your plans in the savage expanse?” Poppy asked me casually after a minute of walking.

I knitted my eyebrows. I needed to act like I belonged. This formation was incredibly advanced, to the point that I wondered if these were actual memory fragments of real people, acting according to ancient recorded personalities.

Judging by the way they spoke of this place, I assumed it was a large domain of land lost to Spirit Beasts, and that the people who came here came to plunder ancient relics. Knowledge of ruins and advanced techniques seemed common, so this place shouldn’t have been too low in spiritual energy. Indeed, the air was abuzz with Qi, enough that if I had a week or two of seclusion I might be able to try breaking through the first realm once more.

“I came seeking treasure. A way to enrich my life… and gather power.”

Eros laughed behind me.

“Ain’t that right. Personal enrichment.” Eros laughed again.

“Are you a noble or something?” Annabelle asked.

I hesitated. There was a line where someone could be too honest.

“Not anymore. I’m of no worth to my family.”

Eros slapped me on the shoulder, walking forward to join us.

“I don’t have the best relationship with my own, either.”

“What about you? Why did you all come here?” I asked. Perhaps knowledge of their objectives would give me a clue to the nature of the formation’s illusion.

I suspected that the illusion was a captured recording of the spiritual intentions of a broad swathe of land. Perhaps this was an ancient rendition of life recorded by the ruins themselves.

“I’m the Eighteenth Daugher of a Noble House of Vascara.” Poppy said.

“She’s trying to get enough merit to take over her dynasty!” Annabelle said excitedly.

“No, no.” Poppy said. “I’m trying to build my own life here. Most of our family doesn’t see much point in investing resources in the untamed continent.”

My working theory on the nature of the formation slowly shifted more and more toward thinking this was a thousands of years old render. But even that long ago, the ruins had been in disrepair.

We made small talk, exchanging minor details about our lives. I answered honestly, though under-exaggerated my role.

“My family administrates a few provinces. I’ve been helping with some of the administrative work. We mostly operate in the mining industry.” I replied, catching a few odd looks.

“That sounds a lot like being in a noble family.” Poppy said. She side eyed me.

“You’re not going to freeze up in a fight, are you?” Eros asked.

“Of course not.” I replied.

“The goblins have an almost human appearance.” Poppy said. “A lot of people hesitate when fighting them for the first time. Like any monster, they will whine and cry when in danger. It makes people hesitate. Especially if they’ve never killed another person before.”

“Is that so?” I asked, thinking back. I had killed both of the goblins without even hesitating. I grimaced. “Normal people hesitate before killing them, huh.”

“You’ve killed before.” Annabelle said. Her voice was serious, stoic.

“Never by my own choice.” I said.

“There’s always a choice.” Poppy said.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

I chuckled wryly.

“I’ll never let anyone take the choice away from me again.”

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

NINE YEARS AGO — Feng Sai, Eleven

The sword in my hands was too large. It was unwieldy. Qi I could barely control pumped through my meridians from daily practice and gathering, rampaging in my arms with a dull buzz. The tip of the sword in my hands cut the wooden platform below us. Around us, blood stained sand filled the arena.

“Dad… do I have to?” I asked, staring up at the Patriarch.

His robes flowed to the floor. His hands were behind his back, and his eyes were dark as stared down at me. The mid day sun burned above us. We sat in a comforting formation that shielded us from the burning sun. No clouds blocked the sky.

The formation we were in lowered the roar of the crowd to a dull buzz.

“A Patriarch must always do what is best for the clan. Sometimes, that involves sacrifice.”

“So we have to kill him?” I asked. “Can’t we do something else? Can’t you do it?”

“The sacrifice we make is a sacrifice of ourselves. We make the hard choices so that our people don’t have to.” He stared out over the gathered crowd of nobles. “If you don’t learn today, when will you learn?”

I stared at the ground.

“Chin up. Stand proud. You must represent the clan.”

Wen stood behind my father, staring down at me. His eyes were soft, though. Regretful.

“Yes, Patriarch.” I said, straightening my back.

I followed in fathers shadow as he walked out of the formation. The roar of the crowd fell on us. The noble clans of the country emanated qi from their seats, sitting quietly and respectfully, while the mortals on the seats around them roared and called for death.

The main show was over. All that was left was the execution.

“Governor Song has failed the nation.” The Patriarch’s voice boomed.

I walked to my rehearsed position.

Governor song was a fit man, body covered in muscles and scars. Long disheveled blond hair hung from his head, blocking his face. Dried blood clung to it.

“He stole the wealth of our nation.” The Patriarch boomed again. The crowd quieted. “Governor Song had been secretly exporting a percentage of the mined Spirit-Stones, failing to report it to the clan, and endangering us all by falling short on the Tithe paid for our protection. Not only did he failed us, he failed the Grim Tempest Sect.”

The crowd booed.

“He risked the life of each and every one of you.”

The Patriarch stepped to the side, looking at me and nodding.

I swallowed hard, whispering.

“I’m sorry.” I told the Governor.

He laughed, whipping his head up. The hair fell away, revealing a bruised face. He smiled at me, but there was no mirth in his eyes. That moment stretched. He stared at me with pity, not anger. Then his eyes turned to my father’s back and hardened.

“Hurry up and do it boy.” He said. “I would kill you gladly if the tables turned. And your bastard father.”

I didn’t want to. I had political instructors. They taught me about social manipulation.

Song was trying to convince me to kill him. To make it easy for me. I could hear that he didn’t mean it.

He was trapped in a pillory that restricted his qi, his head forward and trapped, barely able to move his back.

The Patriarch turned his head slightly, focusing on me. His qi weighted down like a blanket. I swallowed again. My mouth was dry.

I raised my voice.

“Governor Song, as is my right by the blood of the Feng Family, I sentence you to death for the crime of treason.”

I raised the blade and swung it.

Song screamed. The blade stuck. I panicked, hands trembling raising it and swinging it again, but the screaming didn’t stop. Even without his qi, a cultivator’s body was strong. I stared in horror at my dad.

“Swing again, boy.” He said.

I did.

Again, and again, and again. The entire time, my father stared down at me.

He looked like he hated me.

When the screaming stopped, my hands and arms ached.

Governor Song’s head laid on the ground.

They burned his body with the stage. Then we sat in the stands as musicians came out and played for the crowd. We ate dinner. Governor Song’s blood stains marred my boots.

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

After more small talk, Annabelle hushed us, running ahead of us.

“I’ll scout ahead. There’s something there.” She said. Then she activated some kind of qi technique. She became harder to perceive.

Not invisible. She was still there. It was like she was slippery. My eyes kept sliding off of her. I struggled to watch her as she ran up the path ahead of us.

The roads in the forest had narrowed after the bridge, the human walkway turning to a game trail. Plants closed in tightly to the criss-crossing paths through the forest. There were signs of life everywhere, animals scurrying away from us in the brush.

I crouched with Eros and Poppy. Eros constantly squinted into the distance.

“They’re — ”

I drew my sword, half way into swinging it before I realized Annabelle had reappeared only a few feet from us. There was a clang as Poppy stopped the blade.

“Holy shit!” Annabelle said, staggering back.

“Sorry!” I said, sheathing the blade. I clasped my hands and gave a small bow. “You startled me!”

“You’re fuckin’ intense.” Eros said to me, dropping a hand from the arrow he was pulling.

“The goblin tribe is only a few minutes ahead of us. They’re dragging a massive carcass. Tons of them are injured or exhausted. How far do you think we are from their village?” Annabelle directed the last question to me.

[Dimensional Rebound in 68 Hours]

“Another hour, maybe.” I said.

Poppy nodded before asking Annabelle, “Did you get a head count?”

“Thirty Three goblins. Many injured already. Eight of them are tied to ropes dragging the body back — some kind of giant boar.”

“Are you ready?” Poppy asked me.

I nodded. Eros nocked an arrow.

We crossed a few minutes down the game trail before Annabelle waved us down. We sat in the bushes. I could hear the goblins now, making a series of grunts as they communicated and complained with each other. Then I saw them coming down a small hill between the trees.

“Engage at will.” Poppy said, rising to her full height. Qi gathered in her limbs as she prepared to activated a movement technique.

An arrow flew free from Eros’s bow, landing in a goblin’s eye, and I activated my own movement technique.

It had been taught to me as the Feng Family’s technique. But it’s name was Across Darkened Skies. It didn’t sound like the technique a mining clan would have developed.

Qi hovered in a specific pattern in the meridians in my legs. I opened those meridians in childhood, dancing forward and freeing my blade. I shot ahead of Poppy, repeating a swordform I had practiced ten-thousand times: Cutting Wind.

The goblins hadn’t even realized what was happening when I arrived between them.

They had crude weapons, fashioned together out of whatever they could find in the dense jungle. None of them even stopped my blade. I spun, carving through them, counting as they dropped one by one.

Twenty-eight.

I stepped into another sword form as I spun to a goblin charging at my back: Howling Gale.

Their names were so ingrained to me I couldn’t avoid thinking of them.

Twenty-two goblins left. I killed eleven in a few seconds. But the only thing I could think of was the name of each of the sword forms.

They weren’t Feng Family sword forms.

Poppy finally arrived. She punched a goblin in front of me. The monster practically caved in on itself as she beat it with armored hands, killing it in a single punch. A second arrow finally shot our way, killing another.

I continued my dance.

A few moments later, a goblin fell dead in front of me, a throwing knife embedded in its back. I raised my sword, looking for the next target, qi and blood rushing in my ears.

But they were all dead.

[You have gained the skill: One Cut, One Kill I]

[One Cut, One Kill: Damage against targets at full Health is increased. Additional levels increase this skill's bonus.]

[You have reached level 9!]

[Attribute Points available!]

“What the hell was that?” Eros asked, crossing the distance between us.