Wen stared at Feng Sai’s back with a rarely felt sense of concern. Real concern. It would have been better if Feng Jin had failed to reach the Third Realm; then the two of them could have lived ordinary lives, instead of being sucked up and spit out by the Grim Tempest.

“Is there something you need to say, Wen?” Sai asked without turning around. “You’ve been quiet this morning.”

“Once we leave the edge of the Feng territory, my orders are to protect you no longer. I am only to guide you to the location of the Trials and ensure you do not run.”

Sai turned back to look at Wen. Sai had not bonded as closely with the animals; he seemed unsteady atop the boar. Sai stared at Wen with burning eyes beneath a transparent veil that stretched from his hat down his robes. Almost none of his skin was exposed to the elements.

Rain and cold could seep the life even from cultivators in time; they were dressed for the eternal storm that would greet them at the natural formation in the west. On top of that, a backpack as large as he was bounced on his back as the boar trotted on the street. It huffed.

Mortals fled out of their way as they approached the western edge of the city. Sai leveled an even stare at Wen for a long stretch before replying.

“I assumed it would be something like that.” Feng Sai said. Then he turned back around and kept heading toward the west exit of the city. “Two months ago, I was trapped in the First Realm. I haven’t fought against a peer cultivator in a while. I went years without dreaming of ever matching them. Is it wrong to be excited about a city full of Rogue Cultivators? Do you think anyone will challenge me to a duel?”

“No.” Wen said.

Wen bit back more words. Sai didn’t need them. He wasn’t the type to pursue fights with people beyond his caliber or leap out into danger. His upbringing had gifted him with the cold certainty of a cultivator, even if Wen had worked to disabuse him of most cultivator’s black and white mentality.

They exited out of the Western Gates and whipped the reins of the spirit-boars to speed them up, crossing the great planes with haste. They headed west until they found one of the tributary rivers, following along it as the great grass plain slowly turned to marsh. Hours and miles passed before Wen stopped them.

“Halt. We need to hunt to feed the boars. They’re strict carnivores.”

Sai looked around, eyes scanning the waterline where bubbles rose out of it.

“Let me do it. I’m excited to try myself.”

Sai slid from the boar, one hand grabbing his sword. The veil that held back the wind and water blew around his frame. They hadn’t hit the storm yet, but a mass of voluminous gray clouds waffled across the sky.

He dropped his backpack to the ground. It stood on its base, as tall as he was. Then, Sai approached the water. Wen watched in silence.

The creatures in the water were ambush predators. They were dangerous. Was Sai underestimating them? Or overestimating himself?

Wen hadn’t seen how much he had grown after his last travel. He squinted, watching closely. Time bent and slowed to his perception.

A mass of chitin and claw and legs shot out of the water, a spirit-beast twice as tall as Sai and four times as wide. Wen made a noise of disappointment.

There was no way for Sai to dodge the creature’s first strike in time. It was only in the Second Realm; the attack was unlikely to kill Sai. Wen watched as Sai raised his sword faster than any mortal ever could, stabbing up to meet the creature’s claw.

Wen began to nod in dissapointment. Then Sai moved faster.

Wen leaned forward on his Boar.

Was this the same technique that made Sai accelerate in a duel with him? No; that technique had caused all of Sai to move faster. This was like Sai’s body shoving itself beyond its limit; in a single second, he moved faster than a Second Realm cultivator should be able to. Maybe even faster than a Third Realm cultivator.

The severed claw of the spirit-crawdad flew over Sai’s head. The creature screamed in pain, but Sai wasn’t done. His sword continued, the motion cutting cleanly into the crawdad’s side. Black lightning buzzed at the edge of his sword, biting into chitin with ease.

And there was more. Wen watched as the the crawdad’s flesh parted seemingly of its own accord, beyond the reach of Sai’s blade.

Sai leapt onto the monster’s back and beheaded it in a single stroke. His head snapped to Wen, searching for approval. Wen flinched at the bloodlusted smile on Sai’s face.

After a moment, Wen nodded in approval.

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

[One Cut, One Kill reached level 4!]

No matter how many spirit-beasts I killed, I didn’t gain any levels. I was still hopeful that I would be able to gain levels by killing monsters here.

Perhaps it was the relative threat of what I was killing; Second Realm spirit-beasts, on their own, were very low risk targets. It seemed I was able to raise my skills regardless.

We traveled for almost two days, only stopping to hunt and feed the boars. They needed food more than they needed rest. Encroaching on the Stormwall was odd. It rose over the horizon not as a mountain, but as a wall of towering gray that blocked the sky. It started as a trickle of water, an ever present mist that filled the air until it was so wet I could choke on it.

Despite the ever present rain, it was hot. Everything was bog and swamp and dozens of tiny, shifting rivers. Strange trees grew in the Stormwall’s shadow; gigantic, spiraling things with long, waxy leaves. The ground was dry in their shadows.

The air smelled like rain and moss and mud and decay, and the wind howled over the expanse of bumpy terrain. The world grew hillier as he headed up the mountains, monstrous waxy trees choking out the grass and darkening the world even more than the ever present storm clouds above.

The rain shifted from intermediate to permanent; an hour of a misty trickle to an hour of harsh rain replaced by an hour of a harsh rain followed by a downpour that threatened to cause mudslides and whipped the veil beneath my hat around.

Luminescent trees of glowing yellow popped up in the treeline as the world entered a state of permanent gray, clouds choking out the sun. We had to dive through the foliage to find creatures to hunt to feed to the boars.

It took another day of travel there to reach Storm’s Edge.

I saw the city first as a hundred shining lights through the storm, and heard it as a river, the rush of redirected water growing into a low roar as we neared it. The luminescent trees had been planted all around it, forming a glowing forest. My hair stood on end as I neared them; I could feel them siphoning Storm-qi from the air, sparking and buzzing.

It took me a moment to figure out what the hundreds of lights were; cuts of the glowing wood from the luminescent trees had been hung from ropes that blew in the wind around the city’s wall. Posts of the wood headed off into the dark, invisible to me in the rain.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“We’ll need to stay a night to rest the animals.” Wen shouted behind me to be heard over the wind.

“Understood!” I shouted as we approached the city’s gate.

We slid off of the mounts, walking them forward on the reins as we approached the gigantic door of glowing wood. It seemed to fade and dim with time; some spots glowed brighter than others, while other planks had dimmed entirely.

Wen grabbed a gigantic metal knocker and slammed down on the wooden gate.

We waited for a minute. Nothing happened.

I picked up the knocker and slammed again and again.

The wooden gate shifted before being lifted upward into the wall. I stepped through without hesitating. Oil lights projected soft oranges on the other side of the wall. I scanned around. Gruff looking guards played cards on a table to the side under lantern light.

It should have still been day time, but the storm above choked out the sun entirely.

The rain quieted as they raised the gate behind us. There was still a dull roar of rushing water, but it sounded like it was below us. The space around us was mostly mud on wooden planks, a large cleared area for receiving. A wagon of goods covered in a tarp rested in a corner, but there was nothing else in the way before the street.

A guard — one bigger and more scarred than the rest — sauntered up to us. I used [Identify] on him without hesitating.

[Thunderfist Kai, Lower Second Realm Path of Thunder’s Inheritor Cultivator]

He scanned us up and down, looking at our clothes. I watched him make a juddgement. He wore no veil, but the rest of his clothes were flowing and seemed dry. His head was wet, as if he had just stepped out into the rain; a mop of black hair fell around his scarred face.

He looked to Wen. Then he looked to me, locking eyes. I tilted my head back. He squinted.

Kai’s hand fell to the handle of an axe at his side.

“State your business here. This is territory of the Rainshadow Clan.”

I looked to Wen. He didn’t say anything. He wasn’t kidding about not helping me; not even on social interactions, I guessed. This was a low level thug testing to see how far he could push us. He would exploit as much as we let him. I scanned the guards behind him. They were also ready for a fight, despite pretending to be occupied. I counted at least six waiting here at this gate.

“Territory of your clan? I wasn’t aware there was an empire here on the edge of the Feng territory.” I said. “I’ll be staying a night here then moving on. Unless you have an issue with that, Kai?”

I hoped to push him off guard by revealing his name. I let my hand fall to the handle of my own sword.

Kai gained a cocky grin instead.

“You think you’re the only one that knows things, yeah? Noble brat. Here’s what I know. You’re set up to be the loser, aren’t you? And that old man behind you isn’t going to lift a finger if I carve you up, is he? So it’s like this. You come through our territory, you pay our tax. Hundred stone. Simple as that.”

I cocked my head back further, channelling my best arrogant master.

“Surprised, are you? See, Feng Jin already passed through here a while back.” Kai waited for a reaction from me. I didn’t let my facial expression change. “Don’t recognize the name? Too bad for you. We’re still earning back all the losses we ate from him tearing up half the town. So you give us a hundred stone. Or I’ll take it off your corpse.”

The man pulled the axe from his belt. He still wore a smug expression, gesturing with it.

I scanned the rest of the cultivators. They were all in the First Realm. Most of them looked away rather than meet my gaze.

These people never just took a hundred spirit stones. I could give them that many with ease, but then they would come back around asking for more and more until they fought me. I needed to show them that the price in blood wasn’t worth the stone they could gain from me.

“Well, I can’t let my little brother show me up. I’ll have to do at least twice as much damage as that.” I said. Then I glanced over. “Wen, do you think he is a worthy sparring partner?”

I wanted to test myself against a Second Realm cultivator.

“No, Young Master.”

Even better if it wasn’t dangerous.

“And the Rogue cultivators in this city, like this one… what crimes have they commited?”

“Almost all of the cultivators in Storm’s Edge are bandits, Young Master. Pillagers and murderers from the war ten years ago. There are more comfortable places for other Rogue cultivators to live.”

[Danger Sense] went off, but I didn’t need it. I heard Kai move in the rush of air. My blade hit the side of his axe. With a tiny exertion of Strength, I sent him staggering to the side and pivoted around.

His form was sloppy. His footing caused him to almost stumble. Wen pulled Tiny away.

“I don’t even need to take the backpack off for this.” I said. “Thunderfist Kai, on your cultivation, I challenge you to a one on one duel.”

“Like I’ll need help to kill a brat like you!” Kai snarled.

His movement technique erupted from his legs and he shot forward. I was unfamiliar with his cultivation path; but I was learning.

His axe accelerated too, racing down toward me. A concussive burst exploded where his axe met my sword. It missed me completely, only managing to blow around the veil beneath my hat. Kai was suspended in midair as he brought the blow down; I met the axe with my sword and kicked him with my foot. He slammed into the ground, rising with a growl and scrambling his axe out of the mud.

He was weak.

So. Weak.

A Second Realm cultivator, he was my peer in the ability he could manifest with his techniques. But without the martial training to use them, it was practically meaningless. It was stupid of me to think I could find a peer here. Even if a bandit could reach the Second Realm, it was meaningless if they didn’t know how to wield that power.

I felt a deep, burning hate flare to life inside of me. It was surprising. It came from no where, a burning fire in my head as the bandit threw himself toward me a third time.

I had been stopped at the First Realm. And this man had broken through into the Second Realm with this little discipline.

I cut off the head of his axe. It flew down and slammed into the wooden boards beneath us, cutting through the mud with a squelch. I brought my sword back down before man could react.

He screamed as my sword bit into his shoulder. [One Cut, One Kill] activated, slicing apart flesh.

Kai screamed. His other fist raced toward me in an open palm, a concussive blast erupting a foot from my stomach, pushing me back. I tensed, activating [Vascaran Steel.] The blow hit me lightly. I didn’t even cough.

I stepped forward.

“You fucking freak. Feng freaks.” The man spat.

“Do you yield?” I asked, stepping toward the man slowly. I flicked my blade. His blood splattered in the mud.

I shaped my movement technique in my legs.

The guards around us watched in total silence. I saw greed in their eyes. Not hate for me, or fear, or concern from this man who clearly outranked them. Greed. That hate inside me grew.

The man spat toward my feet, then raised both hands. I let my shaped technique activate. The world blurred as I moved to his side. My sword stabbed into his stomach; still non-lethal.

He coughed blood. I kicked him forward, and he scrambled away.

“I… I yield!” He said.

I ran my sword through his head without replying. Mercy was expensive. And beside that…

[You have reached level 31!]

I had to jerk the sword free from his skull. Then I sheathed it.

“Anything else before we enter the city?” I asked, looking around. The other guards nodded a negative. One of them ran away, probably to relay what happened here. “Good. Can someone point me to the best Inn in town?”

The rain never stopped in Storm’s Edge. The city was built around it. Raised wooden walkways let water pass beneath them into irrigation routes that constantly sloshed with a river’s worth of water.

Canopies covered the roads, deflecting rain; except for where they leaked, creating streams of splattering water that soaked the outside of my robes. Walls of water isolated the city. The locals walked through them without blinking. Most stared for what could be considered a respectful amount of time before looking away.

Everyone wore hats or veils and gloves.

“Young Master…” Wen started.

“I know. I’m going to have to deal with them later.” I sighed. “How many other Grim Tempest Scions do you think that man already killed? He knew that you wouldn’t protect me. Brothers and sisters I had never met.”

Wen led both of the boars on their reins behind us as we found and approached the inn. The sign for the place was carved out of the glowing wood, the symbol carved out of the hanging board. It flapped in the wind.

I grabbed the door, but it stuck. I pushed harder. The wind forced it open with a slam. Chimes rung above us. A fire place burned coals in the corner.

“Welcome to the Dripping Dragon!” An old man said behind the counter, putting on a smile. The smile dropped away. “Sorry. Not you. You’re not welcome here. Go away. Rainshadow clan will come bring trouble here.”

I stomped up to the counter. With a trickle of qi to activate the tiny spatial storage ring I carried, I pulled out a pile of spirit-stones.

“We’ll be staying for the night. Meat for the animals, stable rooms for them.” I looked over at the fire place and wondered how expensive dry wood was here. “Is a warm bath extra?”

“I said no business for you! We are closed.” The tavernkeep said.

I rested my hand on my sword. The man paused, staring at it.

“You heard what happened at the gate?” I asked.

“Yeah, I heard.”

“Great.” I said.

I dumped out a few more spirit-stones.

The tavernkeep looked between my face, the spirit stones, and my sword. Then he sighed, turned around, and grabbed keys from the wall.

“Extra if you need me to clean up the stable after you. No fighting in the tavern! Or your rooms! Take it outside. One night only! No extended stay.”

The tavernkeep swept the spirit stones away behind the counter and passed the keys ot me.

“Thanks for being so understanding.” I said with a smile. Then I summoned a few more spirit-stones to the table. “Now, how much to tell me about this Rainshadow clan?”