“I won’t ask again.” Gou Hui warned Mrs. Collins.

I took a deep, strained breath to stay calm and watched Mrs. Collins mouth the word ‘endure’ to me as she gave Arden over to Abby. She was right, of course. I had to stay calm. I couldn’t let him get under my skin.

I watched as Mrs. Collins calmly approached the grinning Gou Hui. She knew as well as I did from watching the others that putting her hand on the crystal ball activated it. The only question was whether or not there would be a response.

But Gou Hui added an unexpected element to things.

“Kneel.”

I saw Mrs. Collins shiver at the prospect, but she did so anyway. This time, however, there was no sweeping leg. Instead, the bastard, Gou Hui, relished in the fear he was inspiring in us. He began to circle Mrs. Collins, articulating every word as he spoke to us.

“Do you know what this is, mortal?” Guo Hui brought the crystal ball inches away from Mrs. Collins's face.

“This right here is your lifeline. It determines whether or not I kill you right here or if I wait until later.” Gou Hui waved the ball back and forth, slowly picking up speed.

“And all I need is a little physical contact to know—”

Bash!

“—if it works.” Gou Hui finished his words and stared at Mrs. Collins, cradling her cheek against the unexpected blow. I watched his smile light up as Mrs. Collin’s eyes watered and the subsequent glare he gave when the crystal ball went aglow with fireflies of a nearly colourless blue.

“Damnit. Why did it have to light up?” Guo Hui spoke with displeasure. He shouted at the nearest bloodthorne cultivator to take her away, and I nearly jumped after her when she started screaming out to us. Abby’s hand was all that stopped me.

“Endure. She’s going up the bridge, not down.” Abby spoke to me.

She was right. The bloodthorne disciples were taking her up the bridge towards the sect and not the one down to the violet mist. It seems even Gou Hui couldn’t affect the way we were separated.

"You there, girl. Put down the boy. I will test him next." Gou Hui commanded, and Abby's eyes faltered. Slowly, she placed Arden on the ground.

“Hey, is he even alive? Get up.”

A swift kick to Arden’s side flipped him over, but a subsequent one to his head knocked him out before he could even realize what was happening. The bastard wasn’t even giving him a chance to be tested.

Gou Hui looked at him, then at me, and whatever he saw in me made his eyes sparkle. He shouted more orders at the bloodthorne cultivators.

“I don’t test dead people. Throw him down into The Pit.” Gou Hui looked again at me and my clenched fists. There wasn’t any way I was letting my best friend get thrown into some corpse pit to rot away.

“Louie, don’t!” Abby tried to hold me back, but I shrugged off her attempts and began marching toward Gou Hui.

“He’s not dead!” I yelled with a furious tone. Gou Hui watched with excitement as I marched right up to where he stood and didn’t hesitate to stare him down. Gou Hui smiled at me, then looked to the bloodthorne cultivators who had picked up Arden. With a casual walk and a single punch, he gave Arden a blow to the stomach that would have bent him backwards. But despite the impact, Arden didn’t wake up.

Had that idiot really gone and died? I couldn’t help but have that thought, even as Gou Hui retook my full attention.

“The worthless scum doesn’t even wake up after a punch. He’s going in The Pit. Unless you have something you want to say to me?”

Gou Hui didn’t let me speak before stepping toward Abby.

“Or maybe, does she have something to say to me?” With steps initially faster than mine, he approached Abby, earning my full wrath in return.

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People always thought that because I was fat, I was slow too. And to an extent, I was, but I wasn’t that slow. I caught up with Gou Hui, who suddenly slackened his pace as he went to grab Abby. In my blind charge, I didn’t notice it, but Gou Hui's smile widened, and he even gave me a clear shot to his face, like he was hoping for my fist to hit there, which it did.

The crystal ball in Gou Hui’s hand fell to his feet as he gripped his face in feigned pain. Even the nearby bloodthorne cultivators let out a disbelieving scoff at his obvious façade. How could a mortal hurt an esteemed cultivator like Gou Hui? Who would dare try?

I dared.

Suddenly, with his nose dripping a thin line of blood, Gou Hui rushed at me, hoisting me up by the neck with a strength his thin arms shouldn’t have held. With a laugh, he commended me.

“Oh, I’ve been waiting for this moment all day. I knew you’d break. This is all self-defence now.” Gou Hui’s other fist impacted my stomach with a strength that knocked the wind out of me. I had been hit by high school bullies before, but this punch felt like a car crashing into my stomach.

I was experiencing firsthand what cultivation felt like. And honestly, it sucked being on the receiving end.

At some point, Gou Hui's hand on my neck dropped me to the ground, and the other joined in on raining down blows. Nothing vital was hit, but every attack was painful like Gou Hui wanted the beating to last forever. Which I’m pretty sure the maniac wanted. His eyes glowed with the thrill of torture as each punch sent ripples across my skin.

But, the blows paused at some point, and a voice drifted into my ears.

“Stop hurting him!” Abby screamed, and suddenly, a blue light swept up my vision.

*****

Gou Jia was overlooking the testing grounds at the sect's base when one of the bloodthorne sect disciples rushed up to him with panic.

“Sect leader!” The disciple announced and then kneeled.

Gou Jia instantly recognized the man as the disciple responsible for monitoring Gou Hui. He knew his youngest brother’s chaotic antics all too well. Giving him power had done nothing but given Gou Jia headaches so far, even if The Matron had insisted on choosing him.

“What is he doing?” Gou Jia calmly asked.

“He’s in the east testing grounds. He hasn’t done anything yet, but you said to report if he stepped out of his cultivation chambers - the ones you made him stay in.”

Gou Jia let out a soft sigh.

“Take me to him.”

The monitoring disciple led Gou Jia to the east testing grounds.

“Go, I can already hear him.”

The disciple bowed and quickly left as Gou Jia walked towards Gou Hui. With a casual glance, he watched as a hysteric middle-aged woman was forcefully walked past him.

Gou Jia’s frown appeared as he remembered some of the information he had obtained from Mei Gan.

“Brown hair, beauty mark above her lip, aged hands from working on a farm…” Gou Jia recognized the features as the wife of the former village chief. He hurried to stop the bloodthorne disciples from dragging her away and told them to remain where they were until he returned. He would deal with Gou Hui, then with this woman.

A peal of bloodthirsty laughter led Gou Jia closer to his brother, who was already raining down blows on a man filled with impurities and barely able to remain conscious. Thankfully, the mortal wasn’t dead.

“Isn’t that the same…? Vengeful.” Gou Jia stepped to break up the useless fight when a voice interrupted his steps.

“Stop hurting him!”

Gou Jia watched with widening eyes as the young woman picked up the nearby Aptitude Sensing Orb and gripped it with all her might. When the two touched, a trapped blue firework was set off inside the orb with unparalleled brightness.

Gou Jia protected his eyes with his Water Qi and smiled in amazement as the thrown orb shattered against Gou Hui’s back, releasing a blinding blue flash. The Aptitude Sensing Orbs were expensive and hard to acquire for a sect like theirs, but Gou Jia couldn’t care less now.

Chop!

By the time the blue light faded from everyone’s eyes, Gou Jia had already rendered the young woman temporarily unconscious in a single strike. Up close, Gou Jia couldn’t help but let the woman in his memories overlap with the young woman in his arms.

“Who dares to—”

“ENOUGH!”

A startled Gou Hui looked in fear at Gou Jia, who glared daggers into his eyes.

“Don’t move. Don’t speak another word.” Gou Jia looked at Gou Hui, who shrunk in his presence.

When Gou Jia spotted a similarly brown-haired man with a bandaged arm, he couldn’t help but curse his fate for playing tricks on him.

The village chief had a daughter and a son with them. The son was unconscious and lying nearby, likely dead if Gou Hui had been involved. Worst of all, the young woman with an aptitude rivalling the heavens must be the daughter.

Had she seen her father killed by Gou Da, his brother? Had she just witnessed her brother be killed by Gou Hui?

Huff.

Gou Jia's thoughts spun as his eyes thinned.

"No, there's still hope." Gou Jia muttered.

Gou Jia would have to reward Mei Gan later for her valuable information on the villagers. He quickly pointed out a few sect members and ordered for the young woman's family to be brought to his private courtyard.

“Brother—” Gou Hui’s words were caught in his throat as Gou Jia looked at him. Gou Jia’s gaze brushed past Gou Hui and landed on the beaten young man. Even now, the young man’s steeled gaze wouldn’t look past Gou Hui, and when Gou Jia saw it, he felt a hint of fear travel into his heart.

Gou Jia didn't remember another man being mentioned in the village chief's family. There was only one son, and the unconscious young man resembled the mother and daughter more than the beaten young man underneath Gou Hui.

That meant the beaten young man was disposable. He would satiate Gou Hui for a time.

“Deal with the loose ends. Then, return to your cultivation chambers until tomorrow’s first light.” Gou Jia watched his younger brother's eyes light up, and then he turned to address the rest of the sect members.

“Everyone else, continue with the aptitude testing!”