Thunderfist Yu exhaled a hot breath, visible as two puffs of air from his nose. Like an ugly dragon. He leaned against a spear taller than he was, the flat end of the haft jammed against the muddy boards of the town’s road. The bladed edge of the spear glinted in the lantern light around it, slick wet with rain. I plastered an irreverent smile on my face.

He stood easily two heads taller than me, something inhuman in his ancestry that showed in the too yellow color of his eyes, the odd tint to his skin, and his massive stature.

“You killed Brother Kai.” Thunderfist Yu said. He didn’t sound personally upset. He sounded like he had lost a valuable possession, instead. “It’s a price you can only repay in blood.”

I pointed my sword toward him.

“I think you still ow eme quite a few brother’s worth of blood, then.” I said. “How many other Scion’s have you killed, when they passed through your little city? Do you not fear the Grim Tempest? Or maybe… you want to die?”

Thunderfist Yu snorted.

“Feng Jin is the one who encouraged me to test the other Scions who crossed Storm’s Edge. You’re too naive.”

I felt my eyes widen. Jin was the one who put them to doing this? With no warning, Yu whipped his spear forward.

[Stormbreak Riposte] pushed me beyond my limit to meet his spear. Concussive force erupted from where our blades collided, the sound of thunder echoing through the street. Distant onlooking bystanders ran with splashes of mud and lanterns around us growing distant in the rain.

Yu pounced forward. I leaned back. His blade swept through the veil beneath my hat, exposing my face to the droplets that flew off the edge of the blade. A musty smell clung to the mane ven through the rain; he smelled like a wet dog in a drug den.

We traded blows three more times before I shaped the Anti-Lightning Herald’s sword technique.

Black, crackling lightning met the concussive force of his blade.

The power of an Upper Second Realm cultivator was impressive; with his Dantian reinforced, the qi he could exert in a single blow was above mine. I had no doubt that my qi was more potent due to my enhanced Willpower. But there was a value to quantity all its own. A massive amount of force ripped free from the end of Yu’s spear.

When the black lightning on my blade met the thunderous blows of concussive force rolling from Yu’s spear, the thunder was silenced.

Now it was my turn to push him back.

We danced, our blades stopping a hair’s breadth from each other as the raw qi from our techniques pushed our blaes apart. The force still pushed him back, sliding over mud. I felt a furious joy overtake me.

I was winning against a cultivator above my stage. I was winning against an Upper Second Realm cultivator. And I was winning with contemptuous ease.

My movement technique activated. I spun, moving faster and faster to try to step through his guard.

Then he stabbed downward, releasing a shock wave that nearly swept me off my feet. I jumped back to recover.

“Bastard Scion. All the resources they gave you and you could barely catch up to my Realm.” Yu made an ugly face. Then he spat. “If I had what you had, I would be a god. Not here in Storm’s Edge. How are you silencing my Thunder Strikes?”

“There’s no need to explain anything to a dead man.”

Truth be told, I didn’t know. The Anti-Metal spirit-beast I had fought in the other world had exerted properties not related to metal Spiritbeasts. I had never questioned the damage the anti-lightning techniques did; they seemed to conduct, burn, and destroy, the same as lightning and storm techniques.

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This was my first time clashing with a peer cultivator to see that there was something more subtle to it. The Anti-Lightning disrupted his shaped techniques. It conducted through the qi of the techniques themselves, burning them down to nothing with each clash.

“I’ll show you something nice today. A spear form I perfected hunting beasts in the Stormwall. You’ll die like one.”

Yu shifted his handling of the spear, grabbing it at the middle with one hand instead of holding it with both. The shape technique in his arm fluctuated, the qi in the air shifting with it. Yu’s open hand curled into a claw as he swung the spear around like a staff weapon.

I blocked the haft of his spear with my sword when it raced toward me. The black lightning on my blade bit into the wood… but didn’t cut it in half.

I grunted. That was a higher grade weapon. Where did he —

His left hand erupted with Thunder. I used [Vascaran Steel] to block again. He gave me no time to think as he leapt toward me once more.

Every time I met his weapon, I chipped away at it; wood and blade both were bit by my sword, chunks falling away to the ground. But he was landing blows by extending his reach, hitting me with concussive strikes without his arm actually connecting. A snarl crept up his face.

He thought that he was going to chip me down, trading his weapon for my life in a series of a dozen blows. That wasn’t going to happen.

I blocked a downward swing of his spear weapon. Then I activated [Stormbreak Riposte] for a second time in this fight.

In only the split second between blocking the downward swing of Yu’s staff and him extending his fist to use his Thunder Punch — or whatever he called it — my entire body bent.

The tip of my sword, buzzing with black lightning, blocked his extended palm, cutting off his technique, and four of his fingers.

Yu screamed and jumped backward, the scream turning from shock to rage without stopping.

He looked around at the cultivators staring around him, who seemed to be collectively shocked. I steadied my breathing, lifting up my sword in invitation. I would have bruises on my stomach tomorrow for this fight, but none of these First Realm thugs would contribute to them.

“What are you all standing around for! Kill him!”

I let the movement technique in my legs roar to life, dancing in the rain as I spun. A cultivators head hit the floor. I spun. I disconnected an arm. A sword rung as it bounced off the wooden ground. I kicked it toward Thunderfist Yu. He dashed into the line of his low rate soldiers.

My blade pierced an eye. I switched to a one hand stance, the lightning on the blade dissipating and reforming in only a second. My enhanced Willpower and practice meant I reformed the technique faster than I ever had before.

Only in a real fight can a cultivator find their limit.

Cut. Stab. Spin. Block. Thrust.

The water on the ground ran red.

First Realm cultivators may as well have been mortals to me. Many of the thugs here may have been able to kill twenty mortals before dying. But I could kill a hundred of these bandits before they landed a blow.

[Danger Sense] activated. I forced [Stormbreak Riposte,] spinning to my back where I smacked away Thunderfist Yu’s spear. He extended his other hand.

Cultivation techniques were refined and perfected over hundreds of years. They would take into account things like ‘what happens if you try to use this technique missing a finger,’ and they might be weaker for it, but they wouldn’t blow all your qi out of your body. The thing about crudely made techniques designed by low-rate thugs who were so cowardly they abandoned their post in their army is that they lacked those centuries of refinement.

Blood and thunder splattered toward me from Thunderfist Yu’s left palm. He coughed, gagged, and spurted blood.

I ran my sword through his neck and kicked him away.

[You have reached level 32!]

The fight stopped.

“He tried to stab me in the back.” I said. It was more me noting it aloud than anything. Rogue Cultivators were truly honorless. I raised my voice. “Does anyone else want to throw their lives away today?”

The cultivator nearest me threw his weapon to the ground, then himself, prostrating in the bloody dirt.

“Forgive me! I was forced by Thunderfist Yu!” The man said.

I didn’t believe him, but that was fine. I wasn’t here to slaughter the entire town. Someone had to be strong enough to fight back the Spiritbeasts that would surely assault even this place.

“If I find out you’re still mistreating my brothers and sisters, I will return here and wipe this city away.” I proclaimed.

Wen crossed around the street with the two boar’s in tow. The cultivators parted around him as he pulled them forward.

“Done here?” Wen asked.

“Looks like it.” I replied.

“Tiny, don’t — ” I heard a crunching noise, looking over to see Tiny — one of the two boars — biting into Thunderfist Yu with gruesome enthusiasm.

Wen struggled to pull the two boars away, jerking on their reins.

I turned to the cultivators around us.

“Lead the way to the Southern Gate. Open it for us.”