Eric had been in the process of doing some calculations when things kicked off. It was him, Lily, and the man in green against eleven disciples from the Crashing Wave Otter sect (twelve if you counted the one choking to death on Lily's arrow).

He didn't like those odds. Those were the kind of odds that people talked about at your funeral. They would need to fight as a team and whittle the enemy numbers down, or else risk being enveloped.

Zane had no such concerns. The young man was used to being outnumbered twenty to one from his training in the warrens. He ran at the closest cultivator, easily dodging their attempts to fend him off with their spear. Then he separated their head from their neck with a swipe of his blade, and moved on to his next target.

The rogue cultivator wasn't sure which of the men in blue was the most powerful. But if the bulk of their forces died this easily, he wasn't too worried. From what he had seen thus far, most of the sects didn't have enough high level disciples to waste them on resource gathering, or petty feuds.

If he were more heroic, Zane would have sought out the strongest among them for a duel. Instead of bothering with all that pageantry, the rogue cultivator proceeded to cut down the enemy as quickly as possible.

They were armed with a mix of spears and swords, but Zane was too fast for their weapons to be of much use against him. On the rare occasion when one was about to land a blow, he teleported out of the way.

His mentor Kiel had moved like smoke, shifting gracefully into an incorporeal state to avoid being hit. Zane was more like lightning, erratically jumping from place to place as he fought. By the time his enemies managed to close in on him, he was already gone.

Most of the blue robed cultivators had never fought someone who outclassed them this much, and it showed. They were incapable of adapting to his attacks, or thinking tactically.

Zane had expected them to attack Eric, or Lily. That would have forced him to stop mopping up the small fry and focus on protecting his allies. Instead, they went after Zane while Lily continued to rain down arrows from on top of the restaurant.

With each kill, the rogue cultivator could feel a rush of essence as his Death Siphon ability kicked in. The only thing stopping him from running full speed continuously was the fact that it would cook him alive. Zane took a moment to regenerate and survey the carnage.

After less than a minute of fighting, six headless corpses lay in the street. Three more had been killed by Lily's arrows, and Eric had managed to bash one's skull in with his fists while they were distracted.

Zane approached the remaining two disciples. The spears they carried were of much higher quality than those of their fallen companions. “So, you two must be the ones in charge,” he said mockingly, “I have to tell you, I'm not impressed.”

The two men looked at him with disgust. “We tried to engage you in combat,” replied the taller one as he approached, “But you ran from us like a coward.”

“Sorry,” Zane said with a shrug, “You should have asked me to slow down and wait for you. Who knows, maybe if you moved a bit quicker your friends would still be alive.”

The smaller one scowled. His face and throat were covered with a network of thin scars. “I'm going to enjoy killing you,” he told Zane.

“Likewise!” replied the rogue cultivator, happy to have finally found someone who might be worth fighting, “I’d ask your names, but I really don't give a shit. Now, let’s get this show on the road. I've got things to do.”

“Oh? Do you now?” asked the short man, “Because I've been watching you fight, and I realized something.”

“And what is it that you realized?” Zane looked around as he spoke, keeping an eye on the tall one who was trying to flank him. Normally that would have been a good tactic. But in order to get behind Zane, the tall one was exposing his own back to Lily's arrows.

“Is it that I killed your guys incredibly easily?” Zane asked, trying to keep the men distracted, “Because I definitely noticed that. Actually, I think everyone did.”

“No,” replied the short man as he advanced, “I realized that you were burning through your energy very quickly with all those teleports. And if I'm not mistaken, you're probably almost completely drained.”

The rogue cultivator did his best to look surprised. Of course, the short man with the scars was absolutely wrong. Each kill had helped refill Zane's essence core, meaning that he had more energy than when he started.

Emboldened by his opponent's lack of a response, the short man continued. “Good luck taking on a pair of level nine cultivators without any of your abilities.”

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This time Zane didn't have to fake his surprise. He couldn't believe they were both a whole Tier below him. If these were supposed to be the heavy hitters, no wonder the others had fallen so easily. Were the lowland sects really that weak? he wondered.

The slap of a bowstring, followed by the sound of Lily's arrow embedding itself between the tall one's shoulder blades, brought him back to the task at hand. He had someone in front of him that needed killing.

Zane threw both of his knives, watching as they embedded in the short man’s chest. The cultivator looked down dumbly at the dark stains spreading across his blue robes.

“Oh fuck,” the short man whispered as he realized Zane had killed him, “Oh fuck...”

***

After the fighting was done, it didn't take long for Zane to piece together what had really happened, or who was to blame. Jeffries had known that if the Crashing Wave Otters attacked one of Zane's patrons, he would be forced to defend them.

The young man would have been more angry about this if he hadn't been the reason they were after Eric in the first place. But he was still unhappy about being used. More importantly, now the General knew that Zane was the Red Rogue.

After the battle, Jeffries had gone off to file some paperwork, leaving Zane and Eric to deal with the dead cultivators. Once the bodies were stacked in the stables(much to Daisy's delight), the two men had gone into Zane's restaurant to discuss what would happen next.

Eric was angry at Zane for destroying his core, as well as getting him excommunicated from his sect. But he also acknowledged that there was a life debt owed for saving him from the Crashing Wave Otter sect.

Zane was unhappy because Eric could reveal he was the Red Rogue, potentially destroying everything he had worked for. It was hard to run a restaurant when lowland lords and sects were trying to kill you. The former cultivator had also hurt Daisy, which was something Zane was not inclined to forgive.

Lily had made herself scarce and was upstairs with Pinky. The rogue cultivator took this as an indication that she was leaving the decision of how to handle Eric up to him.

Zane looked at the large man across the table and took a sip from his cup of berry juice. “Well, I'm honestly not sure what to do with you.”

“I feel the same way,” Eric admitted, “Part of me wants to beat you to death for what you did to my core. The rest of me is more… pragmatic.”

“Go on,” Zane said.

The former cultivator took a deep breath and let it out. “I was looking for the Red Rogue because I thought you might have killed Lily. Now I'm finding out that she's alive, and you were trying to protect her from me.”

“She was worried you would drag her back to the sect,” Zane explained, “And to be honest, I can't blame her. You guys are like a cult, or something.”

“Yeah,” said Eric with a wince, “I can't fault her there.”

The former cultivator looked at Zane for a few seconds. Then, he frowned and set his glass down. “What the fuck are you, anyway?”

“What do you mean?” Zane asked as he leaned back in his chair.

“Well, you aren't human. At least, not anymore,” Eric explained,“You have way too much energy, and I'm pretty sure I killed you the last time we fought. But here you are, sitting there like nothing happened.”

“You'll have to take that one up with the Mesh. I just do the best I can with what I have,” the rogue cultivator said with a shrug, “But let me ask you a question. What do you want?”

Eric frowned again. “I'm not sure I know what you mean.”

“Of course you don't. You've had a cult brainwashing you for most of your life,” Zane said with a sigh, “Ok, let me rephrase it. If I could fix your core, would you want me to?”

The former cultivator nodded. “Of course I would.”

“Ok, and if I fixed your core, what would you do with your life?” Zane asked.

Eric found that he didn't have a good answer for that. He had daydreamed about becoming a farmer or a food critic, but only if he were no longer able to cultivate. If his core was restored, that would change everything. No, that's not right, he realized.

The former cultivator paused his train of thought. He was looking at things from the wrong angle. If he regained his powers, Eric would probably go back to climbing the mountain. The only difference was that he wouldn't be a member of the Rock Mountain Mollusk sect anymore. He would be free.

“If you could fix my core, I'd go do whatever I wanted to,” Eric finally said, “I’d climb the mountain, eat good food, and keep getting stronger.”

Zane didn't actually give a shit what the man did with his life, so long as it didn't cause more problems for him or his friends. He was mostly trying to find a way to make Lily happy that wouldn't blow up in his face.

“Alright,” the rogue cultivator said, “If you promise to behave, I may be able to help repair your core.”

“Just like that?” Eric asked, wondering what the catch was.

“Yeah,” Zane replied, “Killing you would cause more problems than it solved, and Lily would probably never forgive me. So, I'll help fix what was broken, and hopefully I won't live to regret it.”

The former cultivator took a deep breath then bowed his head. “I promise on my honor that if you help me with this, I will be your ally. Your friends will be my friends, your enemies will be my enemies.”

“Fair enough,” Zane said as he stood up, “Let's go introduce you to the rest of the family.”