Kelsey drifted through the ether of the spiritual realm.

How much time had passed now? she wondered.

5 minutes?

10?

In the hidden darkness surrounding her [Spectral Body], she felt the pressure of Dark Frenzy pressing in on her, but she maintained her focus, seeking the essence of Max’s Flame. She dared to wait a minute more, before sensing the strong presence of a greater foe.

I’xol’ukz?

No… it was something else.

Kelsey reopened her eyes in the real world to see a wall of demons charging at her. She gritted her teeth, fortifying her body with [Iron Skin] as she laid into them with abandon. The demons fell quickly under the swift martial swings of her axe and when she was finished about two dozen of them lay dead at her feet.

But they were not the presence she had sensed.

In the early rays of dawn, she could just make out a towering figure in the distance.

Three stories tall.

The demon monster of Master Hong Feng reborn.

“I’Xong’Xiang…”

Kelsey muttered his name like a curse and the monster responded to it with a deep bellow. It had finally found her. Traversing the distance from the city and back to the wild where she now was. But her plan was not to face it today.

She’d already tried that once and had come up short.

Still, spending the entire night, popping in and out of the Bloodmoon looking for Max, had aided her in her spiritual cultivation.

“Not yet,” Kelsey said. “But soon.”

She said the promise with [Struggler’s Resolve] and then retreated about thirty feet into the cleansing warmth of Venja’s barrier. The resonance of pure Frenzy embraced her as she passed through it, its energy shielding her from the effects of the Bloodmoon now quickly setting in the pre-dawn sky.

Fatigue took her immediately.

Her Dantian was well spent, and her mind was reeling with the effects of the cosmic darkness oozing from the sinister presence of the moon. It was good cultivation training for sure, but damn was it exhausting. She was perhaps another half-step closer to a breakthrough in tiers, but that wasn’t her goal for tonight.

Where the hell is he? she thought.

She’d been looking for Max but so far had come up empty handed.

And now dawn was here.

The night was over.

Slowly, Kelsey made her way back towards the village center. She began to wonder if she had miscalculated the dates and gotten things wrong. Max had written to her with the time it would take for him to travel from Du Gok Bhong to reach the Hell Worlds. She had painstakingly worked out her schedule to spend the entire night under the Bloodmoon just as she had done before to give him support while there.

But for some reason he never showed up.

Uncertainty gnawed at her.

She prayed she hadn’t missed it by a day.

Or perhaps she was a day early?

A shout from the fields distracted her from her thoughts and she looked to see three teenagers, shin deep in freshly turned earth as they went about plowing a new plot of land.

“Morning, Sergeant Kelsey!” a girl named Sarah called out to her. “How was the training?”

“Good,” she said with a wave. “How was yours?”

Sarah, who was a couple years younger than her, hefted the plow into the air with only one hand. “3rd Tier now! We’re catching up to you!”

Kelsey gave her a thumbs up and they all laughed.

It was a miracle to see.

A year ago, those three kids were stuck in the bunker just like her, but now, with the guidance of the manual Max had transcribed for them, they were now Low-Tier Foundation Realm Qi Cultivators. She watched a moment more as they went about their work tending the fields, with Sarah pushing the plow all by herself while her two helpers, boys who were barely in their teens, lifted 55-gallon drums full of water as easily as if they were small pails.

It was nothing she wasn’t used to seeing in the city, but out here in the wild, it was a breakthrough of progression worthy of pausing to take note of. This was the future Max had fought for.

No…what she now fought for as well.

A future where Terran society forged their own cultivation destiny.

More evidence of their advancement filled her with pride as she made her way deeper into the village. Log cabins and stonewalled structures flanked the cobblestoned roads that now weaved their way through the homes surrounding the main square of their village.

Kelsey waved to her neighbors as she passed the front gate of her two-bedroom cabin and to no surprise, her mother, Susan, stuck her head out the kitchen window and smiled at her.

“Did you find Max?” she asked.

Kelsey shook her head. “Think I must have gotten the day wrong.”

“Oh,” was all she said, before tucking her head back inside and then continued to work on something within the kitchen. “Well, I hope you can stay for lunch before heading back. I’m making pasta.”

Kelsey smiled at the thought.

They truly had come a long way from living off decade-old MRE’s and rat meat. Now they could grow wheat to make flour, tomatoes to make sauce, onions and herbs to season. They were perhaps just a few more months away from making something truly monumental though.

Cheeseburgers.

It was something Max said he missed eating from the old world and a number of the older residents agreed completely. So after figuring out what was in one, Kelsey had gone through the efforts of finding the closest things to cows that she could find back in the city, transporting a mating pair of water buffalo across the wild.

With them, they were able to produce milk to make cheese and soon the first herd would be old enough to slaughter for meat. She was hoping to surprise Max with a meal from his childhood past upon his return home.

But at this rate she wasn’t sure if he was on his way home or not.

“I’ll stay for sure, Mom,” she said. “I’ll just go meditate until then.”

She was dead tired, but the tainting of her soul by the Bloodmoon required swift treatment. Arriving at the center of the square, Kelsey connected with Venja and allowed the harmonic vibrations to cleanse her Flame while she manifested her [Spectral Body] within her mind’s eye.

Venja herself quickly joined her in the spiritual realm with a look of anticipation on her face.

“How did it go?” she asked.

Kelsey sighed. “Not well. I didn’t sense him at all.”

Venja frowned and then crouched down next to her, bringing the giantess equal to her in head height. “Perhaps the distance was too far this time?”

“I don’t know,” Kelsey said. “Does distance even matter in the spiritual realm?”

Venja merely shrugged. “It matters to me and what I can experience, but what you and Max experienced was quite different. So I’m not sure.”

Kelsey sighed. “Probably doesn’t. Which means I must have gotten the date wrong.”

“I don’t think so,” Venja said. “Last night was the night. Unless Max supplied you with the wrong date, of course.”

That was possible.

Max was a Chun, after all.

Venja laughed, reading her thoughts. “Will you stay to try again tomorrow?"

“Don’t know if I can,” Kelsey said. “I need to get back to protect the Native Housing District in the city.”

Although it had now become routine, chasing off stray cultivators and dealing with the three Bird Sisters’ antics was a total pain in the ass, and not to mention a near full time job.

“Perhaps just return when you can,” Venja said. “Your bond with Max is strong. I am certain your paths are already winding their way towards one another again.”

Kelsey smiled. “Thanks, Venja. I hope so.”

Even though she knew there was nothing she could do about it, Kelsey still lamented inside. It wasn’t like she could spend every night out here looking for him, and there was no telling now when he might show up, or if she might miss him while being back in the city. Not to mention she still had problems of her own to deal with in the meantime. Like that monstrous demon looking to claim her soul.

The thought irritated her and she sighed.

“Damn it, Max,” she swore. “Where the hell are you?”

* * *

I studied the piece of paper Hein had just handed to me.

It was a billboard flyer for the upcoming match.

In celebration of the return of the 566th Imperial Battalion

Her Imperial Majesty, 2nd Princess Rheutera hosts a three-day Martial Tournament.

All Brackets are invited to compete with a Special Exhibition Match to take place on the final day.

“The Battle of the Prodigies”

The Lady Rhe Su Long of the Twin River Sect Versus the Iron Bull of Terra!

Below the headliner were two images. One was of a young woman with two jian blades and the second was of a fire breathing minitour with glowing red eyes. It was total propaganda, a beauty versus the beast kind of story.

“What is this bullshit?”

“Don’t ask me how they got the idea for that picture,” Hein said. “I had nothing to do with it.”

I eyed him suspiciously. “That’s a very specific defense, Hein.”

“What?” He then shrugged. “The Governor asked me what you dressed like in the ring. It’s not inaccurate, is it?”

“It’s a damn caricature!” I said with a grimace. Although it probably worked in my favor in a way. “That reminds me. I need to get myself a bull mask constructed and some body paint before this thing.”

“See!” Hein said as if vindicated. “Anyway, we can probably get that before the start of the match. We’ve got two days still.”

It’d already been a few days since cutting the deal with Mak Tung and the tournament was now underway. I’d spent most of that time training to get myself back into form. Although I’d had plenty of practice slaughtering demons and slaying giant monsters, fighting cultivators was a different story.

I had to get used to using my axe and glaive techniques again and changing my mindset from brute force to using strategy, skill and finesse. Not exactly Berserker strengths, but when in Yee society, I had to play by the rules. And it would be for much longer than I thought. Now that I had brushed shoulders with the upper echelons of the core worlds, I could see just how far my path lay ahead of me in terms of defeating the empire.

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Becoming a Legionnaire would put me as a top dog back home, but here, I’d be a petty noble at best. Still, rank was rank, and I was about to willingly get my ass handed to me on the grand stage.

But before that I would have to beat my opponent into near submission.

No matter who I was facing, this wasn’t going to be an easy task.

Between sparring with Hein and practicing where I could, the muscle memory of my tournament fighting days was slowly coming back to me. My last true match was against Jei Su Long back at the academy, but even that wasn’t a true match. This one would have the added pressure of a planet-sized audience that was already picturing me as the villain.

“The [Odds are truly Against Me],” I said with [Struggler’s Resolve], glaring at the stupid flyer.

Hein glanced at me quizzically. “Hell are you talking about?”

Oops, I thought.

I had to remember using Berserker techniques out loud probably sounded crazy as hell to people.

“Nothing,” I said, quickly, cultivating the burst of Frenzy the technique produced from my Flame. It was paltry though, mainly because there was no true substance behind it. To truly know if I was going to be the underdog, I needed to know exactly who this Lady Rhe Su Long was.

“Alright,” I said. “Time for you to get some tea.”

* * *

We headed back to the main city to an upscale part of town where Hein could find one of the high-end tea houses where the real big wigs liked to hang out. I kept hold of the flyer and waited outside while Hein went in and did his thing. It took about an hour, with me having to bow to all manner of pompous pricks while trying to hide myself with [Mask of the Despised].

An hour later Hein eventually re-emerged.

“So what you find out?” I asked eagerly. “Who the hell is this Lady Rhe Su Long?”

“Well she isn’t from here,” Hein said. “She’s from the Governor’s planet, which is why it’s maybe going to take a couple of days for her to get here after the tournament starts.”

“What Cultivation Realm and Bracket is she?”

“Most of the people I asked seemed to think Low to Mid-Tier, Sacred Soul Realm,” he said. “She’s a top tier Gold Rank contender though. Qualified for the Jade bracket.”

“Shit,” I said. “She outclasses me for real. Looks like that bastard Tai Su Long is taking out all the stops to get back at me.”

“That’s not all,” Hein said. “They call her the little princess.”

“The what?”

Hein shrugged. “She’s the Princesses’ Granddaughter or something. But I gathered they call her that because she’s a prodigy just like the princess was.”

“Oh yeah?”

“What? You didn’t notice how young the princess looked?”

I shrugged. “Didn’t really care, to be honest. She was kind of a bitch.”

Hein shook his head disapprovingly. “That damn tongue of yours.”

“Anyway, what else can you tell me about her? What’s her win record like? She got any weaknesses?”

“I’m not your damn bookie, Chun. I couldn’t get information like that from casual conversations. The most I know is that she’s a rising star in the Twin River clan. This won’t be an easy fight. You’d better damn well be up for it, because I’m not losing my head over this.”

I could sense a real touch of fear in his soul.

That centered me a bit.

I needed that manual, but I was fighting for more than just that now.

Hein’s ass would be grass if I didn’t pull this off.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you bro,” I said with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “But I’m definitely going to need that mask.”

* * *

The next two days were filled with more sparring and training.

The entire battalion was in competition mode, with soldiers sparring against each other for the honor of representing their various platoons in the tournament. I stuck to sparring with Hein for the most part.

He’d certainly advanced in his own martial prowess, perhaps being close to Fia’s level of proficiency now. Still, I had no idea if even that would be enough to prepare me for someone who was qualified for the Jade Bracket.

Our efforts to gain more intel on my mysterious competitor proved fruitless as well.

Lady Rhe Su Long seemed to be known by reputation only, being from a different world perhaps. Besides the picture on the flyer, I didn’t even know what she looked like.

That made me only redouble my efforts to be in tip-top shape for the match.

I sparred with Hein during the day and then meditated and trained within my own head at night, utilizing my time compression technique within the spiritual realm.

In two days, I packed in an extra week’s worth of practice with my martial forms.

When the day of the match finally arrived, I was hyped to the max with anticipation and anxiety.

The morning started with me collecting my mask from an armor-smith who in only two days, managed to piece together a crude, yet identifiable helmet made of angled black iron plates with a set of horns that were more like welded pipes.

It looked like complete shit, but serviceable for what I would need it for.

The Lady Rhe Su Long would be the most formidable opponent I’d faced yet, and sure as hell was I going to need to dip into my Berserker [Marks] to gain an edge. In the afternoon, right before the match, we met up with Captain Lin Fei and paid a final visit to Mak Tung to go over the final details of the deal.

“I’m going to have 5,000 spirit stones riding on this,” he said. “I hope you think your brother-in-law is worth that much.”

Hein shot me a grimace, perhaps having second thoughts.

“Hey,” I said. “Defeating this Rhe Su Long is going to be the easy part, trust me. You just need to be quick on your trades, so you don’t miss out. I won’t be responsible for that part.”

Mak Tung laughed with a shark-toothed grin. “That’s what I like to hear.”

It was still mostly bullshit at this point, but I couldn’t let him or Hein know how risky things might actually be. For both their sakes, I was going to make this shit happen no matter what.

“I’m staying here to make sure nothing happens to Lieutenant Dong prematurely,” Lin Fei said. “You don’t have a problem with that, do you?”

Mak Tung grinned at her. “So long as there will be a victory party when I return.”

She snorted out a laugh. “We’ll see.”

I wasn’t certain what kind of relationship the two now shared after their fling, but I was thankful for Lin Fei to give me some further comfort for Hein’s safety while I was in the ring.

“Thanks for this, Captain,” I said to her in a whisper, pulling her to the side. “I appreciate it.”

“Just make sure you succeed,” she whispered back. “I’d rather leave my home world without things becoming a bloody mess. Understood?”

“Totally.”

“Yeah, don’t screw this up, Chun,” Hein echoed her as he handed himself over to Mak Tung’s guards. He then added with dripping sarcasm. “I’ll be waiting in eager anticipation.”

“As will I,” Mak Tung said and then, pulling out the manual he waved it in front of me, before slapping it across Hein’s chest. “Come through and both shall be yours. Mess up and this will be the last time you see him with his head still attached.”

He gave me a grin and those soulless, sharklike eyes of his said he’d kill Hein in a heartbeat if given reason to. I eyed the manual in his hand. So close, yet so far. If I were stupid enough, I could try and kill him and just take it.

But that would leave us in a shit storm, considering what Captain Lin Fei had just said.

And I still needed to be on my way and off to the Hell Worlds, not embroiled in a gang war that would likely draw in the entire battalion.

Just play the game, I thought.

Trust the path.

My Flame would see me through.

“Like I said.” I shrugged my shoulders with bravado. “Winning is going to be the easy part. Let’s get to the ring.”

* * *

I entered the Imperial courtyard with Mak Tung following closely by my side.

The turnout of the crowd was overwhelming. I’d been in the arena previously, and while it had been packed, with at least a dozen rings set up for the various brackets and matches to take place, now it was like the entire planet had shown up.

The same place where we had been inspected by the princess was now converted into a single-staged ring the size of two football fields. Flaking the ring was a crowd of what had to be a quarter million people or more. In the sky above them, hung a sea of skiffs which had to include the true royalty of the planet and city.

Above the stage was an enormous Qi lighting display that currently had my beastly caricature versus the elegant Lady Rhe Su Long. We were the main attraction it seemed and the battle at sunset was fitting for a final showdown.

“I’ll be watching you,” Mak Tung said, making an ‘eyes on you’ gesture with his fingers. “I’m off to the bookies.”

He disappeared into the crowd then and I made my own way through the sea of people to the staging areas set up just in front of the ring. A presiding official didn’t believe who I was at first, until I showed him my ID plus my bull mask to boot.

The son of a bitch merely laughed. “This should be good. The Lady Rhe Su Long rarely competes anymore. I hope you make it worth her getting out of bed, off-worlder.”

I crinkled my nose at that but didn’t say anything.

I grabbed my stuff and headed towards the makeshift locker rooms.

Once out of sight, I went through my routine of greasing myself up with the red body paint and prepping my bull mask. I spent a few more minutes to focus myself then, slipping into my mind’s eye to go through my martial forms while remaining seated in lotus position.

My Dantian was filled to the brim and my Flame was surging.

This was it.

I was ready.

“You’re up, Bull Man!” an official shouted to me after a while. “Get on the court!”

I hefted out a sigh as I gathered my weapons and after ascending a short flight of wooden stairs, I entered the open air of the stadium proper. High above me, my minotaur caricature was brought to life with animation, breathing fire and bellowing like a bull.

The crowd responded with roiling laughter as people pointed to both the display and myself, perhaps shocked that I actually looked the part with my painted skin. I raised my makeshift helmet in the air to complete the gimmick and got even more laughs and jeers.

I probably looked like a clown to them, but I didn’t care.

This would be my ticket to using my greater powers right before their eyes.

With none of them being the wiser.

“So, this is him, everyone!” a familiar voice resounded throughout the stadium as I made my way towards the center of the ring. “The infamous Iron Bull from the planet Terra!”

I looked for where the announcer was, and finally spotted him high up on a floating skiff, along with a royal entourage that included the Princess herself. But the voice I heard was none other than Tai Su Long’s.

The governor was moonlighting as an MC, it seemed.

Or at least for my match he was.

“Please everyone!” Tai Su Long said. “Let us all applaud his great courage. He who dares to defy the might of the Twin River Clan. This day may well be his last. Applaud him for his bravery! Come on now!”

Tai Su Long began clapping and that got even more laughs and jeers as people took to their feet in a mock standing ovation. I glared up at the man and felt my Flame surge. To his side was none other than Jei Su Long, clapping and laughing right along with him.

My anger spiked inside, contempt mixed with rage.

For a half second, I had the vision of proving to all these people how powerful I truly was.

I was already imagining burying that Lady Rhe Su Long in front of the crowd.

Whoever the hell she was.

But I had to remember the plan.

Get close to winning, but then lose.

“Let it be known that this man claims himself a prodigy,” Tai Su Long continued. “Hailing from a weak, outer world, this rare specimen has reached the sacred Soul Realm at only twenty years. Commendable… for a savage.”

He burst into a mocking laugh and the crowd joined in with him.

My ire spiked even more.

“But this exhibition match was called the battle of prodigies for a reason. Many will know, that my esteemed niece, the Great Lady Rhe Su Long, is herself a prodigy. But unlike our backwater savage prodigy here, she reached his same level of progression at only 9 years old.”

The assemble began clapping as Tai Su Long paused for applause.

But the news was crazy to me as well.

Nine years old? I thought. What the hell…

“Let us now welcome to the ring, a prodigy rivaled only by our great princess herself, the undefeated star of the Gold Bracket and Master of the Twin River arts, the ‘little princess’ herself… Lady Rhe Su Long!!!”

A fanfare of dramatic music began to play as the image of the screen was showered with orange blossoms. At the far end of the ring a diminutive figure stepped onto the battlefield. She looked all of about four feet tall and wore her blue hair in pig tails. Two jian blades were in her hands and as I squinted to get a better look at her, her entire body shimmered with a luminescent blue glow.

From where she stood, a huge serpentine dragon suddenly erupted from the ground like a geyser and flew into the air. It corkscrewed and weaved, its translucent body at least a hundred feet long and thick like a tree trunk. Riding upon its back was a figure that was clad in celestial armor, wielding a giant spear. The dragon spiraled through the air in time with the fanfare and the crowd roared with delight.

The dragon and its rider dove towards the center of the ring and upon closer inspection I could see the tiny frame of Lady Rhe Su Long riding upon one her jian blades, which was on the dragons back. Her other blade was in her hand and her thrusts and twirls with it were mirrored by the armored dragon rider.

“A true display of power by the ‘Little Princess’!” Tai Su Long shouted above the crowd. “A Twin Scared Soul so powerful at such a young age! Lady Rhe Su Long’s River Dragon Spirit looks big enough to swallow the Iron Bull whole! Much less what she will do to him with the Armored Spiritual Body of her core!”

Shit… I thought.

The [Odds Were Against Me] for real now.

I’d never seen a Sacred Soul that big, much less two of them in one.

Was that even a thing?

Two Sacred Souls?

I know I kind of had two as a Berserker but could a Qi cultivator have the same?

Before I could contemplate any further, the dragon turned towards me and charged.

I braced myself but need not have bothered.

It dove towards the ground at just the last moment and the rider hopped off as the spectral beast disappeared into the surface of the battlefield, landing right in front of me. Up close, I could see the figure was definitely that of a woman, so tall that she reminded me a bit of Venja. But there was no muscles or scars here. Just under the cowl of the ornate helm was a face fitting of a princess.

The crowd was still going wild, but above it all a high-pitched giggle caught my ear.

“Impressed, are you?”

It took me a moment more to focus on the little girl in pigtails hidden within the translucent form of the giant armored warrior woman standing before me. She looked all of about 12 years old, and I immediately had a flashback to that obnoxiously little Green Bird Bitch from my first Wooden Bracket match.

But Rhe Su Long wasn’t a normal 12-year-old.

“What’s the matter?” she said. “Not speaking? I heard you have quite the devilish little tongue on you.” She then smiled. “Looking as good as you do, I’d relish to put it to use one day.”

The smile turned into a mischievous grin and a disturbing squirt of lemonade came from her soul.

My stomach lurched, becoming instantly sick.

“What?” she said. “Don’t make that face at me. I was only paying you a complement.”

I backed up reflexively. “Look, my name ain’t Shen Liu, understand? I don’t dig getting sexual compliments from little girls.”

Her eyes suddenly widened with recognition. “Ah! Little Finger! That one did spend an inordinate amount of time trying to put his fingers on me.”

She began laughing and my stomach turned so bad I nearly vomited all over the floor.

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” she said, her tone becoming sharp. “You don’t really think I’m the age I look, do you? I’m perhaps twice as old as you are.”

“Look, I don’t care how damn old you are,” I said. “I’m not into this. If you’re here to fight, then let’s fight!”

She sighed. “Why so soon to business? You do realize in a few decades I’ll be looking closer to your age, don’t you?”

“What?”

“Believe me when I tell you, being a prodigy is no prize.” She then rolled her eyes. “You’re lucky you were already fully grown when you broke through to the Sacred Soul Realm. I could kill my parents for forcing my breakthrough at only nine. I’ve been stuck a half-step to the Lesser Deity Realm for over a decade now, because of that. If I transition now, I’d be stuck in this damn body forever. At least as a Sacred Soul Realm Cultivator, I can age a year for ten at this rate.”

I blinked perplexed. “Cool story, sis, but still not interested.”

She grinned and then glanced up at the towering warrior woman surrounding her. “Does that look like the soul of a juvenile? I could invite you to explore my inner world if you like. Encounters within the spiritual realm can be just as satisfying.”

What the hell kind of reverse pedo crap was this shit?

My ick meter finally hit the limit and I lashed out at her with a swipe of my axe to ward her off. “I said piss off with that shit!”

She deflected my axe without even flinching, her jian blade moving on its own.

Tai Su Long’s voice then boomed from above. “Looks like she said something to rile him up! You can always count on the little princess to lite someone’s fire! Or perhaps ire!”

That got a roil of laughter going.

Rhe Su Long cackled, leering at me. “If only they knew what I’d really said.”

“To hell with you, you weird little bitch!” I said. “Let’s get this match over with.”

The smile dropped from her face and her soul filled with resentment and rage.

“Have it your way then,” she said, her tone becoming icy. “I tried to be nice, but I suppose you’ll end up dead like all the rest. This One does not take rejection from men very well.”

Rejection from men?

All the rest?

What in the actual hell?

The Lady Rhe Su Long spread her arms and the majestic spectral dragon emerged from the ground again, coiling itself around her like an impenetrable shield.

She gave me a final, shit-eating leer. “Are you ready, bull man?”

I donned my mask and cycled my Frenzy, preparing for the weirdest fight in my life.

“Bring it on, bitch.”