"We can win this."

I stood over my group. My crew. My family on this side. Whatever I was going to call them.

"This one advises caution. Just because the Cultivator is able to advance others to the point where they can reach the second realm through talking doesn't mean that-"

"No, no. Let's hear him out Cousin," Moon Lee said.

Moon Fei leaned next to Moon Lee, both arms fully inside his shirt. The man wasn't doing well, as evidenced by the yellow pallor of his skin. He was whispering into her ear from time to time, the auntie supporting his efforts with her body.

"This one apologizes," Moon Xiru stepped back from the center of the room, "Far be it for one of my stature to try to tell his betters what to do."

"I take all criticism seriously. Growing as a person is one of the things I encourage."

"Well in that case, this hare-brained scheme is going to end up with the lot of us dead and open warfare in the streets."

"That would be something to see," Madame Kang, our latest recruit said.

"Mother!" Egiya stared her mother down, looking up from her notes.

I wanted to ask her to run back the tape but I didn't think that it would make sense as a joke. She did look a fair bit like a court reporter, though.

"It's simple. We need to infiltrate their compound," I said, "Yes the one that is guarded by second realm cultivators, but I can assure you that my path has the right tools to deal with those impediments to our progress. They have been probing the moons clans defenses since I came here for closed door cultivation."

"Why not draw out the Sect leader?" Xueyie said, "They're willing to track you down. Have them send wave after wave of their foot Soldiers, and we can destroy them with a flourish."

She was wearing her stage makeup. For her, we had held this meeting late and agreed not to comment on the white face she still wore.

"Thanks. That's a bit dramatic, but I don't think that would work out well for us. If he sees us coming then that is a problem It's why I have been working so hard on my veiling technique with Moon Lee. If there is a weakness that we can exploit, it exists where they feel safest."

Moon Lee nodded. Moon Fei was still on her shoulder, though he had stopped whispering.

"Ah you youngsters. I wish I could partake in these festivities," Madame Kang said, "Alas, to only see the fruition of such planning with so many intelligent minds, it is such a blessing."

"Alright. Much appreciated for that. But I figured that we could all talk about this before we dive into it and iron out the kinks."

Min shook her shoulders from my lap, looking for more pats.

"Which is why I prepared a fifteen point execution matrix for this exact moment," Egiya said, holding up a crude map with a dizzying assortment of steps on the outsides.

The collective groan nearly overwhelmed me. Only Moon Lee and I cracked a smile.

"I wanted to join a semi legal enterprise, not do more of this, but you take what you can get," Moon Lee said, "Let's begin with the first phase-"

---

The first part of this involved the various ways that material got into the compound. Moon Lee and I were obviously the heavy hitters in the group, thus we found ourselves cuddling in a nondescript shipping crate.

With the help of the Taoists makeup department, we were able to heavily disguise the box and ourselves to look like Red Fang operatives. I hadn't seen and female workers, but Maxine assured me that they existed.

Maxine hadn't wanted to join the crew, though Moon Lee had asked nicely on our behalf. Instead, we were doing a time limited team up. She was going to hopefully be the backup and do some iron man shit. I hadn't yet worked out how to fly and my tactile telekinesis was only working so well. I was considering calling it dad mode or something else similar, but I hadn't yet found the right thing to call the technique.

My veil technique was on point. Especially for myself only, with all of the training Moon Lee had been doing with me trying to sneak through it. Hers was of course rock solid, as she had practiced it for two years.

Our first test was slipping into their larder. According to the Gondoliers, their support staff was a skeleton crew of outsiders that kept to a defined part of the compound. Or at least that was the most that they could glean from a few greased palms.

"What's this then?" A gruff voice said.

"Delivery for the Red Fang," our courier said,"says that this one is a bit early. If you would be so kind as to sign here that you have received it."

The flapping of paper against the top of the crate we were in resolved into scribbling.

"That's all good then. Do you need directions?"

"No, I have delivered here before, unless the Sect wants them to a different place?"

"Same larder as always. Check in on your way out. Stay on the path, everyone is on high alert today."

I was nose to nose with Moon Lee. Any other time this would have been romantic, with a little trauma bonding to seal it with a kiss. We had been studiously avoiding eye contact but on hearing the last sentence we shared a long look.

She might have wanted to pull out right then, but we had only gotten the just a little bit inside before that choice was taken from us.

"Heard and understood," our blissfully unaware courier said before pushing us creaking into a place which now more than ever gave me the creeps.

Tense second later and we again stopped. The courier loudly moved around and I realized that I his steps sounds like shouting if I focused on them.

I reached out with my Nascent soul, feeling as to the directions we had gone. I had a vague sense of our distance but seeing with a sixth sense painted a stark picture. The larder was inside and to the back of the communal dining hall.

Once we were inside and put to the side the courier had been instructed to tap on the box twice.

We stopped moving about a minute into it, the cart creaking the whole way.

He dropped the cart efficiently and we waited for a tap.

Instead we heard a slurping sound which set me on edge. Then the sound of a muffled thump came over and we were in it.

Moon Lee pushed her fake door out, rushing into the dark larder. I followed immediately.

The dank cool place was stocked wall to wall with crates. My Nascent soul flared on something standing over a body. Behind us, one man stood up over a body. He was quickly changing into a uniform and I recognized him as the courier that had brought us in.

He saw the opened crate, then the two of us outside of the real fake door.

"That's not our guy," Moon Lee whispered,"take him down."

The man bared a set of sharp fangs and I closed the gap. Lee went right as I popped him in the jaw.

I pulled a trickle of Qi out, just enough to activate my dadliest skill: tactile telekinesis. As he tried to return the punch it began to dawn on me that his hands and chest were bloodied.

I just needed a grip on his shoulder to pick him up. Using that hold I lifted him over my head and then smashed his ass into the packed stone of the larder floor.

Moon Lee checked on the man on the ground.

She gasped as I smashed him again hulk style. I was really getting to love this.

After the third time he was unconscious and I was certain to have raised some sort of alarm. His face, already smashed to bits reformed to a neutral face something that I hadn't expected.

"He copied the couriers face. Those assholes," Moon Lee said,"He was probably going to leave as the courier while they used the body for..."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

*CLINK*

Both halves of the man split apart.

The courier lay dead as the red fang thug had tried to stand up. Lee casually bisected him with her glaive that she had withdrawn from her soul space. I was eternally envious of that well kept secret, but she had taught me the veiling technique. She was probably- if Min was to be believed- going to ask me to take one of her nieces on a date in an exchange I had already mentally dubbed, Quid pro dad bod.

"Let's move," she said, as I jogged to the only apparent exit.

It was about then that my extended senses pinged on something I wouldn't have otherwise noticed. The door was secured, but I felt an opening into a large space underneath us. I didn't have the pinpoint control to determine what was down there yet but I had a good guess as my body shuddered.

"There's something underneath us," I whispered from the door.

I opened it up a crack to look around. I could see the small path that had been his last walk. I wasn't going to dwell on the two men, one dismembered, that were right inside the door. This was supposed to be a smash and grab assassination, no frills. The more things went sideways, the more I wanted to dip out.

"There's not supposed to be something underneath us," Moon Lee said, "Do you sense anything?"

I cursed leaving Min with the recovery team. She would have been able to tell something beyond 'dusky cold room smell where wooden crates are stored'. It would have been nice like so many other things that in retrospect would have worked better. Either way we were behind enemy lines with two dead people in a compromising situation.

"It's something. Or someone. They're moving in place."

Lee and I looked at each other before deciding to follow up on this new lead. We had both expressed a need to figure out how the demonic cult had done what it had done. Even if the blue robes would take nothing but demonic activity being shoved driving to their faces, we would have to bring that to them. It was either that or shove it under their noses. And we all know how well the police work.

" Can you sense a doorway, or trapdoor somewhere to get underneath us?"

If I could sense it that meant that there was a way to get there. My senses didn't go through walls. Or at least not yet unfortunately. And that meant one of two things, that there was either a vent or a door wide enough for me to snake my nascent soul through. Either way I had a feeling that it was some sort of door.

I turned back to look into the larder with fresh eyes. If somebody was coming through and was going to take a another path from the inside to go to a secret enclave underneath it then there was probably a sign. That or signs of use. They would probably have made it as easy as possible to enter. This was how I narrowed it down to just a few places and in short order, I was opening a trap door.

The large trapdoor was a solid cellar door type that folder outwards. It was instantly recognizable but surrounded on the three sides by wooden crates. I pushed my senses through it and found a large open space on the other side. We stepped through after seeing that it had both natural light and a of flicker of flame.

The underground passage led to a room approximately the size of the larder but underneath it. As we are close so I could hear moans, causing me to pick up my pace. I began jogging as we got closer and it opened up to show me a room full of people in shackles.

Moon Lee retched as she threw up behind me.

The stench was probably the worst thing I've ever smelt in my life. Every fiber of my being wanted to leave. Something made me stay. Probably it was a misguided of sense of duty. A younger me would have seen the mass of shackled people and wanted to save them all. I realized that in order to do that I would need to save myself.

Starving men and women covered in cuts and bruises looked at us with dead eyes.

Beyond emaciated, this had to have been intentional. No would cause this amount of suffering unintentionally. I couldn't hold back my tears. The only thing that kept me sane was knowing that I had the ability to do something about this.

Behind me I could still hear brunch being tossed up from poor Moon Lees tender stomach. Neither of us had asked for this kind of thing. When they had said that demonic cultivators were the bane of society, I had understood that in the abstract. The stark reality was far worse than I had ever expected.

"We have got to do something about this. This is a crime against humanity. How do we-"

"Lee. We take the red fang down."

You were on their turf after all. It was going to come down to a battle. Probably a long one if we had to move people at the same time and they were all looking like they even kept alive. I was going to find that Sect leader and destroy him.

"We can't do anything right now. Can we. Half of them look like the walking Dead, the other half doesn't look much better. Their shackles look breakable. If we can get them out of here then they stay in a chance to tell the blue robes what's really going on."

"We've got to secure the compound before we-"

She was interrupted by a groan. What sounded like a raspy cough followed as blank faces turned to us. The damned things-no they were human after all- looked to us pleading for something.

I took slow breath and drew in the pure aura of the room. Unexpectedly, dream aura filled me as I converted it to qi. What kind of dreams could these people be having except for-

They had to have been having nightmares.

Wisps of black qi danced around me as I took on their dreams. I pushed them all into their own dreamscapes as they collapsed. My core stretched to an aching degree as it pushed to expand.

"Joe-What-How?"

"They're going to take a nap now and wake up in a better place."

"I-okay!"

She followed me up the stairs. A man at the top took a look at me and ran right for me.

An opened palm met has face as I moved his entire body into the wall and through it. His body rested there, partially liquified.

Above, his friends stopped, eying the scene in bewilderment. With no regard for their lives, they too ran straight at me.

I tore them asunder.

First realm demonic cultivators meant nothing to me any longer. Only the thought of destroying their leader filled me with anything akin to hope. It was like they were trying to earn a girl scout badge for destroying the concept of themselves, and had elected me their den mother.

"It's time to educate these idiots."

The door was halfway open. I kicked it off it's hinges walking towards the center of the compound. A dozen men and women stood in my way.

I cracked my knuckles.

"Going left," Lee said as she ran around my side.

Two women launches themselves at my with spear tips pointed directly at me. I took an empty step in, softening my lower back and then grabbed both spears bypassing the tips. The spears stopped, and the women holding them violently held on.

"Listen- I don't know what you kids are up to-"

I slammed both spears into the ground, pinning the women underneath them.

"But do know one thing. Laws are real and so are consequences."

Lee kicked one man into another, then swiftly beheaded a third one with her glaive. The two men smashed into an outer wall, cracking the marble.

"And you all are now subject to my consequences."

These women were both first realm cultivators. I could see the fear in their eyes as Lee parried the last man's spear technique, then she kicked him straight up into the air.

I shifted my grip impaling the two women with the butts of the shafts. I was an equal opportunity offender. They had the mark. They were just as guilty as anyone else in this forsaken place.

Ahead of us the inner training grounds of the Sect opened up. Two cultivators stood there. A quick gauge of their strength put them at roughly third realm.

Good.

I could stop holding back.

A two meter tall bald gangly man child covered in bandages held a scythe. It was a bit on the nose if he was going for a gothic reaper look. He barely wore any clothes except for a black fighting gi. He displayed no outward emotions, to all the world playing a rebel without a chance to make it until tomorrow.

To his left, a woman in an intricate black and blue robe held a falchion. The blade seemed at odds with everything about her but she made the look work.

The man with the scythe threw it in our direction. I narrowly avoided it, but he wasn't after me. The long bladed shaft extended with a chain to hit one of the women I had impaled. Before I realized it, she went from a gasping near dead cultivator to a husk and I could see the Qi flowing from her body back. The man on question looked like he was in the throws of passion.

"All you had to do was sign up and we would have given you everything, Joe," he said.

"That's not happening," I said casually grabbing the chain and exerting my will on it to the fullest,"get over here!"

I pulled on the chain, yanking him forward to mee my fist. He stopped short but was unable to pull his scythe back. There we stood as Moon Lee clashed blade against blade with the silent female cultivator. Our tug of war lasted for the longest ten seconds when I felt Min tug on our bond briefly.

The reinforcements were coming. The cultivator that Moon Lee had kicked straight up had probably been taken as a sign. That or the cracks in the outside wall.

Three third realm cultivators touched down iron man style next to us. Maxine was joined by both Jin Wong and Jin Jeena. Jin Wong assumed a battle pose with his quarterstaff, while Jin Jeenas fists surrounded themselves with air currents.

Maxine, for her part launched a beam of arc light straight out of both hands directly at the cultivator who was engaging Moon Lee. She was really turning herself into iron man. I let that twinge of jealousy slide. She might have seen me as her Pepper Potts, but she had been my Lois Lane.

The two cultivators to their credit didn't skip a beat, attempting to engage all five of us at once.

In the corner of my eye I could see Min, Xueyie and Egiya at the gate, fighting what had to be first realm cultivators and beating them handily.

I took a moment to assess my situation as our attackers dodged fricking laser beams from my ex wife.

Jin Jeena caught a falchion with her bare hands before kicking the wielder square in the jaw.

If the Sect Leader has a flair for the dramatic, he would probably reveal himself now, but I didn't see hide nor hair of any reinforcements coming from inside the compound. He might have just decided to fuck off at this point and cut his losses. I know I probably would have. Finding allegiance through fear couldn't work for the long term.

The falchion wielding demonic cultivator barely parried a blow before being pushed bodily into a small crater. The man with the scythe was on one knee, bleeding out or kept alive by sheer force of will alone.

I could feel Min behind me, she was doing whatever her mental equivalent of a happy dance was. Either she had beaten someone soundly, or she had won an argument. I turned to see what the girls were doing but kept my nascent soul pushed out to maximum distance.

Egiya was weaving in and out between various Sect members taking shots when it was to her advantage. Next to her, Xueyie was pressing the attack with Min. There was no rest for the few dozen men that she kept busy with her ministrations of an icy revenge. Min backed her up alternating between fixing demonic cultivators in place so one then the other could rush an attack.

I nearly cracked a smile, until all the weight of a fifth realm cultivator dropped on my small group. Jin Jeena and Wong took a knee as what could only be called intense pressure pushed us all down. I struggled against it, trying in vain to effect any sort of change.

Then, he touched down.