I think Naaran hates me.

Well, hate is probably too strong a word, but he definitely doesn’t like me.

Which is totally fair. Not everyone has to like me, even though I’m funny, polite, generous, considerate, and conscientious. I get it. Some people are bothered by that. I’m not to everyone’s tastes, which is fine. To each their own. I accept this. Naaran doesn’t have to like me. It’s cool. That being said, I don’t think it’s fair that he doesn’t like me, because Naaran doesn’t even know me. He knows Falling Rain, but that’s not me. I’m just a Natal Soul assigned to help Naaran in these trying times, which means technically, this is our first time ever meeting. Okay, yea, I’m like, ninety-nine-point-nine-nine percent similar to Prime Me, but that zero-point-zero-one percent is more of a difference than you’d think. For the sake of comparison, humans and chimpanzees share almost ninety-nine percent of the same DNA, but you’d never mistake a chimp for a man or vice versa, now would you?

Now that I think about it actually, you might. Really depends on the chimp or the man, I guess.

Whatever. I’m just saying, it’s not fair to judge me by the standards Prime Me set. Besides, why doesn’t he like Prime Me? We’ve spent so much time together, Naaran has pretty much become a fixture in my life, so I figured he’d at least be lukewarm to my presence, but nope. Here I am trying to literally sacrifice my newly acquired existence so he can get a leg up in his fight against the Half-Demon Mataram Patriarch YuGan, and what do I get in return? Nadda. Nothing. Zilch. That’s what I get. Unlike Binesi, Naaran isn’t stonewalling my efforts to contact him, but so closed off he’s utterly unaware of my presence in the first place, alongside any and all efforts to open up a line of dialogue. Far as I could tell from Prime Me’s earlier efforts, Binesi at least had some inkling of someone trying to contact him, because the timing of his attacks perfectly coincided with Prime Me’s attempts to help. Granted, the outcome was completely different from what we were trying to convey, but it’s proof enough that something was getting through. With Naaran, it’s like I’m trying to teach advanced calculus to a god-damned rock, though I’m beginning to think I’m sorely underqualified to teach Naaran anything at all.

Seriously, Peak Experts are on a whole other level from us normie pleb Martial Warriors, and I never really wholly appreciated this fact until just now. The demarcating line between Expert and Peak Expert is not so easily defined, because it’s not solely a matter of jumping higher, running faster, or hitting harder. Nor is it really about Martial skill, because if it was, Lang Yi would count as a Peak Expert due to his superb mastery of the spear forms. I’ve asked before, but no one really ever told me how one becomes a Peak Expert, and seeing how I jumped through the strength rankings reach to my current undefined level in a single bound, I kinda stopped caring about getting a more specific answer. Today, as I stand and watch Naaran trade blows with Mataram YuGan, I finally understand what it means to be a Peak Expert.

In a word?

Mastery.

Whether it be Chi skills, Forms, weapon handling, or anything else you might think of, a Peak Expert is someone who has mastered the myriad intricacies of combat. That’s what it takes to be acknowledged by the world at large, a demonstration of said mastery. When Gerel declared himself a Peak Expert, he was telling everyone in the Citadel that he had mastered the various aspects of the Martial Path and possessed the qualifications to stand amongst the best of the best. Then, in a series of duels against established Peak Experts, he proved it. Not by winning against his opponents, because that’s not enough. You can be more skilled and still lose due to a number of factors. Less strength. Less stamina. Poor decision making. Slow reflexes. Whatever. Mastery gives you an edge over your less skilled opponents, but it doesn’t guarantee victory, the same way superior strength or speed doesn’t. Gerel winning his matches was just an added bonus, proving that he not only has the skills, but also the instinct, intelligence, and experience to use them, but even if he’d lost against his first opponent, no one would have dared to claim he was no Peak Expert. Fifty moves was the ‘gift’ Gerel offered his foe, Brigadier Sang Hyoon of the Seven Star Sect, fifty moves before he would retaliate, and in that short period of time, Gerel demonstrated his skills for all to see and proved that he deserved the lofty title of Peak Expert.

I remember the fight well, but I was merely a frog in a well at the time, still overly impressed by how Gerel Cloud-Stepped off the balcony and over to the stage. I remember thinking how cool it was to walk on air like that, and how jealous I was that it wasn’t me, but even though I can Cloud-Step now, I doubt I could ever match Gerel’s casual arrogance and lofty disdain. It’s just ingrained into every fibre of his being, a stubborn pride that refuses to ever back down, and while I hate to admit it, he has the talent and dedication to back his arrogance up. To think, he’d calmly offer his opponent fifty moves, then break his promise in the first exchange to show everyone that he wasn’t boasting and could really defeat a Brigadier in a single move. That’s some serious swagger that I know I could never match, and it burns me to admit it.

Seriously, if I tried something like that, my opponent would probably scream, “You dare?” and immediately try to kill me, but when Gerel does it, he earns their respect. Probably because he’s tall and muscular, plus he has a face that belongs on a heroic male lead in a superhero movie, while I’m short and ‘pretty’, as Yan would say. Life just isn’t fair.

Running through the memories of that fight in my head, I note how Gerel made sure to showcase all eight basic Chi skills throughout the duration of the match. A hop back to avoid the first swing, then another for the second, then he reversed his momentum and bent over backwards while sliding under Sang Hyoon’s maul before coming around to face him again, the movements so smooth and slick it almost seemed like Gerel was a leaf in the wind. As incredible as it looked, at the time, I never really appreciated just how difficult that series of movements must have been, because I had no frame of reference to compare it to. Gerel’s movements were quite literally inhuman, because no basic human could ever replicate them. He was only able to pull it all off through a combination of Lightening, Stability, Deflection, and Amplification, but there might be other Chi skills I missed. What’s more, despite the inhuman nature of his movements, he made them look so normal and natural I didn’t even question how he pulled it off, just accepted that it was a part and parcel of being a better Warrior.

But even now, if pressed to replicate those same movements in a safe environment, I doubt Prime Me could pull it off within a hundred tries. Or even a thousand, if I’m feeling bold, though he’d probably give up long before reaching that mark. I know how to use all the Chi skills, but you gotta do more than memorize the steps if you wanna be a professional dancer. You gotta practice the steps, then practice them some more, and again and again until they become ingrained in your body, mind, and yes, soul too, until it’s all as natural as breathing. I named four Chi Skills which Gerel used in those three exchanges, but I couldn’t count the number of times he used each one or describe the method of application, because he was almost always using more than one Chi skill at any given moment. More than that, he was also making minute adjustments to each skill on the fly, and applying them unequally across different parts of his body. Take Lightening for example. In order to bend over backwards and glide away, he had to Lighten himself enough so that he could slide across the stone stage on his Deflected Domain, yet do so in an unequal fashion to keep his boots from flying off the ground or losing too much traction and slipping, to say nothing of the core strength required to do the limbo mid-fight. I can’t even begin to wrap my head around the physics of his actions, but Gerel’s mastery of Lightening is so high he doesn’t even need to think about it. It’s the same with all his Chi skills, so ordinary and instinctive that it’s as natural as pointing at a flying bird or letting your feet follow a paved road.

Don’t get me wrong. Prime Me is strong, but he’s no Peak Expert. Stronger than one, maybe, but that’s not what the designation is all about. It’s the difference between a professional eater and a bear, wherein even though the professional loses every time, it’s still an impressive achievement to be able to compete, whereas the bear is just a bear. Cute, cuddly, and incredibly voracious, but doesn’t really do anything extraordinary from a technical perspective, which sums up my attainments in the Martial Path pretty well. Power, I have plenty of in the form of Heavenly Energy, but no real idea on how to use it, else I wouldn’t be floating here in helpless impotence while reminiscing about a fight I saw almost two years ago.

Honestly, what I should be doing is breaking down Naaran’s fight with Mataram YuGan instead and seeing what I can learn from it, except it’s a little like trying to puzzle out advanced physics while I’m still struggling to count. I can slow down my perception of time and see them jumping around and trading blows in the skies over Meng Sha, but while seeing is believing, understanding takes a fair bit more work. Even though they’re all Peak Experts, there is a vast disparity in the level of skills shown by the various Peak Experts in Meng Sha, and I believe that these two here are the most skilled, bar none. Comparatively, this means I’m even more clueless here than I was during Gerel’s inaugural fight as a Peak Expert, leaving me wholly unable to comprehend the inner workings of their actions. I mean, they’re freaking fighting in mid-air for fuck’s sake. I can Cloud-Step with the best of them, or so I thought, but Naaran and YuGan are treating gravity like a suggestion as they zip back and forth, up and down, sideways and under, all the while trading blow after blow after blow. It’s like seeing a fish and saying it swims, which is 100% correct, but also wholly lacking in any and all useful information regarding the mechanics behind aquatic motility.

It starts with Naaran soaring through the air to deliver a thrust that’s more than a thrust. I say this not because I can’t recognize the Movement he’s using, which I don’t, nor is it because I see the same signs of elevated mastery I saw from Lang Yi only dialed up to eleven, which I do. No, I believe Naaran’s thrust is more than a thrust because despite looking like a straightforward lunge of his spear, there are a myriad of forces and variables in play which I can barely perceive, much less identify. Even though he’s moving at a snail’s pace in my eyes, I can’t even track the course of his spear as it slithers like a snake through the air, oscillating at speeds so quick it doesn’t even look solid anymore. Not because his spear is special and floppy like Singing Spear Shi Yukan’s signature weapon. No, Naaran’s spear is solid steel and rigid as can be, but his movements make it look flexible using the same principle every bored student uses to make their pencils look like they’re made of rubber. An optical illusion, but one so well done that I find myself second guessing the facts as I watch the spear do more than just undulate back and forth, but also seemingly rotate and spiral as well as its Chi runs rampant to confuse my eyes and Spiritual Senses, all of which makes it nigh impossible to track Naaran’s course or make any conjecture regarding his chosen target.

For me at least, but not so for Mataram YuGan, who brings his spear downwards in a diagonal sweep to intercept Naaran’s thrust. Tiger Form, Twitching Tail, delivered as an active parry that could also double as an offensive strike, a simple and straightforward response to an infinitely complex attack. From this alone, it’s easy to see that the Mataram Patriarch’s spear skills are inferior to Naaran’s, lacking a certain je-ne-sais-quoi that I cannot describe because I myself am lacking the same, an ineffable quality that elevates a Warrior into a Weapon Master. That being said, their spear skills are but a single facet of the respective strengths of these two pinnacle Peak Experts, and YuGan is not to be underestimated, for the Sword King Ryo Dae Jung was the greatest swordsman of three generations and still fell to the Mataram Patriarch’s spear.

Which just goes to show, in a life and death battle, the stronger, faster, or even most skilled Warrior isn’t always the one who comes out on top.

In response to his opponent’s counter, Naaran adjusts course and picks a new target, causing YuGan to shift his movements to match him. This sets off a chain of adjustments and readjustments as they approach one another at break-neck speeds, and it occurs to me that they’re not really reacting to each other’s actions as they are playing out a set of moves they already planned in advance. Surely there are some on-the-fly changes and adjustments made last second, but I can’t pick them out, nor do I really understand what sort of tactics or information they’re working with. It’s like seeing two grandmaster chess players sit down and stare at each other, playing dozens of games out in their heads before ever laying hand on a single piece, except this game here has far more variables and unknowns to account for as well as a complete and utter lack of rules besides the admittedly pliable laws of nature.

Their spears cross paths without colliding, but not for a lack of trying, as Naaran’s repeated twists and turns do more than just deceive. The movement itself lends weight to his Domain Deflection as a veritable whirlwind of Chi surges out from the spearhead with an audible gust of wind. Sticking to his guns, the Mataram Patriarch continues with his sweep in an effort to barrel through the Deflections, and crude as it might seem, there’s no arguing against its effectiveness. Pure unadulterated power against pinnacle skill, and power wins out in the end as Naaran’s thrust is swept aside in an ear-splitting collision. Credit where credit is due, YuGan aims his parry perfectly to give him all the leverage in their exchange, striking the tip of his opponent’s spear with a section sitting in the top-third of his own.

A basic concept even I understand, yet seeing the Mataram Patriarch use it so effortlessly makes me feel ashamed to call myself the Number One Talent, for there is still so much I have yet to learn.

Ordinarily, you’d expect a parry like that to smash Naaran’s spear aside, but he expected the exchange to play out like this, or at least had plans in place for this very outcome. Though his Domain Deflection failed to turn aside his opponent’s active parry, Naaran repurposes those same energies to instead bind their spears together, grabbing hold of YuGan’s spear and dragging along as he sweeps his spear out to the side before bringing it back around for a horizontal strike. There’s a flash of surprise in YuGan’s eyes, so brief even I barely catch it, and I would have entirely missed it if I wasn’t able to read his emotions so well. That brief moment is more than enough for Naaran as he exhales so loudly he might as well shout, and his Honed spear is a formidable sight to behold. This Chi working is nothing particularly out of the ordinary like Dastan’s Severing Cut or Mom’s Reinforced shards of Honed Domain, elevated forms of Honing that can cut without a blade behind it. Nor is it anything beyond what I would call regular Honing, because that’s all it really is. That being said, there’s still a marked difference in Naaran’s Honing that I can’t really describe, an ease and fluidity to it that I wouldn’t be able to see with my physical eyes. I Visualize Honing like a chainsaw, a moving layer of Chi over the edge of my weapons that is filled with rotating rings of biting ‘teeth’, for lack of a better word, but Naaran’s Honing is… seamless and inseparable from the spear itself. He’s not using his Chi or Domain as an extra layer, nor is he using it to enhance the sharpness of his spear. Instead, his Honing accentuates the natural sharpness of his spear, a difference that one might think is without distinction, but I cannot deny the effectiveness of what I see and feel here.

There’s no separation between his Chi, Domain, and spear, none whatsoever. Three as one and one as three, One with the Spear, One with the World, One with the Heavens, and more, a merger of man, nature, and Heaven working together. For a moment, I’m unsure if Naaran’s spear is moving, or if it’s fixed in place, and the universe is moving around it to facilitate this one, singular attack. There’s so much more to this strike than what I can sense, so much more than I can comprehend, but even this much is enough to leave me speechless in awe. Still dragging his foe’s spear behind it, Naaran’s strike passes through the finger wide gap between helmet and pauldron and crashes into YuGan’s neck, sending a spray of sparks flying out into the air.

Pain.

Fear.

Shame.

Rage.

Mataram YuGan experiences a rollercoaster of emotion, wholly caught off-guard and unprepared for Naaran’s superlative strike, but the Demon residing within his Runic armour is not so easily deceived. Much like me, it can glean more than what the physical senses perceive, for though it is an aberration and abomination of nature, it was crafted from the Energy of the Heavens themselves, and therefore far more in tune with it than mere mortals. Chi surges out from YuGan’s Core and into the quasi-living armour through connections that go beyond the physical. Once inside the armour, YuGan’s Chi merges with the Demon’s Ichor which is the life’s blood of its existence, a perversion of Heavenly Energy made real and tainted by the wrongness of the Demon’s birth. Together, these two energies mingle to become more than the sum of their parts, only to pass back into YuGan’s Core whilst still in the Demon’s control. From the Core, it flows through YuGan’s metaphysical body like blood through his veins, billowing out in all directions rather than veering straight towards its eventual target. No idea why the Demon would move its energies in so roundabout a fashion, but it does have the added benefit of highlighting YuGan’s Spiritual ‘system’ for me to see.

Honestly… it’s pretty much like I imagined, a vascular system that exists in the immaterial yet is somehow fixed to the material, a tangled interweaving of networks that stretch all throughout YuGan’s body. There are large passages, and small ones, horizontal ones, and vertical ones, ones wrapped around organs, piercing through bones, or connected to tissue and skin, a vast system that stretches all through every last iota of the Patriarch’s body. Complex and convoluted though it might be, I note a number of blockages or inefficiencies along the way, somewhere I feel the flow would be better served if a path were opened or connected in a different manner. It’s not a matter of the shortest distance, or even the most efficient one, but my Spiritual Senses detect a wrongness in some sections that I feel would could be corrected, though I have no idea why that would be.

All this takes place in less time than it takes to blink, so much less that even fractions of a micro-second would be too large a unit to measure it by. The Demonic energies moves out in all directions, but it converges around YuGan’s neck before Naaran’s spear lands and forms an exceptionally dense barrier over, under, and all throughout the neckguard encircling his throat. Naaran’s strike lands with a crash of steel on steel, but fails to do more than leave a gash in the Demonic armour, a hair-wide, finger-length furrow that spurts out a stream of greyish-yellow Ichor, except that it’s not Ichor any longer. In merging with YuGan’s Chi, it has become something else, something both more than Ichor and less at the same time, with stronger ties to the physical than the metaphysical. It’s… spent, I guess is the best way to describe it, devoid of that which makes Heavenly Energy Heavenly in the first place, leaving only a conglomeration of detritus and contaminants it picked up along the way.

Impurities I guess, many of which have been left behind all throughout YuGan’s Spiritual System, but what that might mean in the long or short term is beyond my meagre comprehension.

This is all what’s taking place on a ‘spiritual’ level, but in reality, it’s much easier to describe. Naaran’s attack lands on YuGan’s neck, only for him to do a little cartwheel in place as if he’d anticipated it in advance and went with the flow to minimize the impact. Only Naaran and I know that the strike landed true, and only the Mataram Patriarch and I know how much this seemingly casual defense cost him. Disheartening as it might be to go to all this effort and fail, there is no emotional response from Naaran, no disappointment or frustration, anger or indignance, just… nothing. He is by far the most emotionally closed-off person I have ever seen, radiating an almost neutral cloud of emotion that is wholly unaffected by anything and everything at once. At its base level, I can sense a subtle foundation of grim… not resignation, but indifference to the world at large, as if he’s long since given up on caring about anything at all. This doesn’t mean he’s given up on winning and is ready to die, because nothing could be further from the truth. He’s still fighting the good fight and intends to win and survive, but the issue is he no longer has anything left to fight and survive for. He’s treading emotional water, doing what he does because he doesn’t know how to live life any other way, but it’s all so empty and meaningless he’s long since stopped caring. There is no anger, no regret, no fear, or passion, just an almost casual nonchalance as he fights for his life against what might well be the strongest foe he’s ever faced, yet emotionally behaves as if he’s at the market to pick up a cabbage on his way home.

Which is just sad. What made Naaran this way? What did he have to go through to become like this? This goes beyond being old, jaded, and world-weary, because this is a level of apathy comparable to what I was searching for when I escaped to the Call Centre of the Void. Though he is a living, breathing, human being, Naaran is cold and dead inside, and has been for so long that he prefers living his life this way.

Well… At least now I know why he doesn’t like me. Not because I’m not likable, but because Naaran doesn’t like anyone. Or hate anyone. Or really have any sort of strong feelings about anyone in general, besides those opinions he formed before becoming this way.

Having overtaxed my mind following this one, singular exchange, I pull back and simply watch their battle play out. Naaran holds the advantage, then loses it as YuGan and the Demon seize the upper hand, only to reverse the course of momentum once again in a staggering back and forth that takes all of a second to play out. Nine exchanges took place in that moment, nine extraordinary and superlative exchanges I could not even begin to explain, and just watching their physical movements match up with the flow of their Chi fills me with awe and apprehension. Excitement too, because it shows just how far I still have to go, because I am nothing if not a fanatic of the Martial Path. No, not the Martial Path, but the Dao itself, because it’s not the prospect of Martial strength which excites me so, but the endless possibilities of Chi and Heavenly Energy.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

I’m not sure if Prime Me has even noticed, but we are so much more aware of things now. Maybe it’s because I’m a Natal Soul, but being able to feel the emotions in the air and track the flow of Chi is doing wonders for my comprehension. There’s so much to unpack in just a single thrust of Naaran’s spear, so much more than I ever realized was there, and it occurs to me that the mysteries of Heaven are no longer as ineffable as they once seemed. There is a logic to all of this, laws by which even Heavenly Energy must abide by, so once I am able to grasp those laws, I will know how to work with and around them.

Food for thought, but I shouldn’t be wasting my life on unravelling mysteries when I’ve got a real job to do. The problem is, Naaran’s barricaded emotional state is impervious to all my efforts to reach him. The easiest workaround would be to ask Prime Me to Send a message, but that runs the risk of distracting Naaran which would undoubtedly lead to his death. That’s assuming he even left himself open to Sending, which I doubt he did, because I now sense some working of Chi around him which isolates him from the world at large. Probably means I can’t use weaponized, uber-loud Sendings against prepared, skilled opponents, but then again, I knew that from the start.

So how do I get through to the emotions of a man who has closed himself off to emotion? If I can connect with Naaran and get him to accept me, then I can deliver him all this Heavenly Energy I’m made of, which won’t really win him the match outright, but could give him an edge or at least make it so they’re fighting on equal terms, more or less. How did I connect with everyone else? Love, in the case of Mila and Yan, trust for Li-Li, Dastan, Jorani, and a few others, and faith in the case of a good number of soldiers and Stormguard, both the originals and the new ones Creating their Cores here in Meng Sha even as I muse and deliberate. Then again, faith is pretty much just blind trust, so I doubt I really need to make the distinction, though I will admit that faith can be both stronger and more fragile than trust at the same time. Oh damn… what will happen to the Stormguard if they ever lose faith in me? Will their progress along the Martial Path stall or even regress? Or was faith just the jumpstart they needed to get going, and no longer necessary any longer?

Lots of questions, but now really isn’t the time.

“Yo,” Prime Me Sends, his tone annoyed and afraid, yet trying to sound calm and reassuring. “Since you seem like you’ve got nothing to do, you’re being promoted to field general. Don’t fuck it up.”

…You know, I can see why some people don’t like me. I can come off as real grating at times. “What happened to the last guy?” Did something stupid, I bet.

“He did something stupid, and now I have to go save his sorry ass.” Ha, knew it. “Don’t be like him. There’s only so much I can do, and I don’t like you guys much to begin with. Incoming update.”

A torrent of information and Heavenly Energy hits me like a lightning bolt, and to call it jarring would be an understatement. In total, I have been alive for all of a few minutes, but if you take that time and multiply it by the number of perspectives Prime Me has taken in, you get a metric shit-tonne of things that have happened since, all of which gets crammed into the very fibre of my being without so much as a how you do. No drink, no dinner, no foreplay, not even a bit of lube, Prime Me just slams it in, pulls out, and ghosts me like a bad booty call, a simile I hate even as I think it up. Stupid brain. No wait, I’m a Natal Soul. I don’t have a brain, so what do I blame it on? My soul? Wouldn’t surprise me if I had a stupid soul too, because it’d be par for the course. Holy shit, the Natal Soul I’m replacing must have been extra stupid. What could have possibly convinced him it was a good idea to go poking around at the metaphysical fabric of Meng Sha? He knew there was something hinky afoot, so what did he expect would happen? For some Spectres to pop out and be like, “Awww, you got me! You… you’re very good at this, you really are!”

Then again… I am kinda curious about what happened. Maybe I should go take a little peek. I’ll be more careful than the last guy, and who knows? Maybe Prime Me could use a helping hand.

Gah. All this extra Heavenly Energy has made me more… me, I guess, which is where the last guy went wrong. He let his curiosity lead him astray, so I need to be extra focused about staying on task. A quick review of all the information brings me back up to date, and I find myself disagreeing with how my predecessor went about his job. Too much focus on the lower tier troops, especially in light of the depressive Aura pervading the fortress. He even knew about the whole ‘beacon of hope’ thing, but he took that information and tried to light a bunch of candles in the middle of a category five hurricane. Five is the highest right? Or is it the lowest? Whatever, a big ass hurricane. Instead, what he should’ve done was focus on the heavy hitters, like… Well, like Naaran. Except my predecessor trusted me and others like me to do my job, which was why he chose to focus on what he did. That’s the big mistake, trusting any incarnation of Falling Rain to do their job right. Fell victim to one of the classic blunders, he did, but personal fuck-ups aside, the logic still stands. If I can’t get through to Naaran, then I’ll just hafta focus on other top-tier Warriors, like…

Situ Chi Gan, who holds the upper hand in his fight against Mataram Minzhe, but not so much that he’s the clear winner. Unfortunately, the Natal Soul assigned to him is every bit as helpless as I am, because Chi Gan is a man who believes wholeheartedly in himself and his Clan, in that order. So long as he still draws breath, the Clan is strong, a conviction upon which he has built his solid foundation of strength and confidence, but leaves little room for outside help.

Okay, okay, cool, cool, cool. No need to panic, because there are plenty of other Peak Experts around like…

OuYang YuHuan who also similarly only trusts herself, which is why her assigned Natal Soul can’t get through and teach her how to Heal her punctured lung or overload her Runic devices to output more power in one final attack. Go next.

How about Daxian, who trusts no one and nothing, not even his Mentor, Father, or half-brother? Not even worth trying, and the same can be said of the Woodsman Yelu Chi and Radiant Fist Wugang, both of whom are wandering Warriors wholly lacking in cause and conviction.

Which leaves the drunkard Lei Gong, who strikes a curious figure in his ragged robes and broken sandals as he stands tall before his Demonic foes. Behind him sits the injured Tyrant OuYang Yuhuan, struggling to breathe as Daxian tries to pull her away to safety. Three Demons converge upon them, each one emanating peril and menace enough to make Peak Experts balk¸ but the Lord of Thunder stands firm and fires off three jagged bolts of lightning. A shroud of blackness converges around a spindly, quasi-avian Demon and stretches out to cover its allies, a creature Blessed by Shadow, Darkness, Void, or something. To my Spiritual Senses, the blackness presents itself as a solid pane of Domain, yet also more than mere Domain as its dark energies flow through it like molasses. In contrast, Lei Gong’s blasts of lightning are jagged tendrils of pulsating energy, so raw and natural like true lightning as they course through the air and crash headlong into the Demon’s shadowy defenses.

Only for the lightning and darkness to dissipate upon contact, the Will and Energy holding both workings together simply coming apart at the seams as their energies blend and negate.

On the surface, it would appear as if Lei Gong traded evenly with the Demon, but there are three Demons arrayed against him and their combined mass and raw strength far outweigh his own, especially in light of the hulking, multi-limbed appearances of the two supporting Demons. A lesser man might have fled, or at least hesitated at the sight of three formidable Demons bearing down upon him, but the Lord of Thunder issues a challenging roar and brandishes his Spiritual Cane in defiance. Easy to forget given his dirty, disheveled appearance, but there was a time when Lei Gong was a Lieutenant Colonel of the Imperial Army, a young rising dragon who stood at the forefront of his peers. This is not a man who turned to a life of banditry due to greed or anger, but because he was disillusioned by the attitude of his peers and superiors. They saw their soldiers as cannon fodder and behaved as if their rank meant they were above the law, and when he tried to go above their heads to ensure they would pay for their sins, he was set up by his superiors for a crime he did not commit.

And so Lei Gong’s morals and principles derailed his career and forced him into a life on the run, but in all the years since his fall from grace, he has never once let his dispirited dejection affect his unwavering conviction. He did the right thing and paid dearly for it, but if ever given the chance, he would make the same mistake again, because that is the man he is. For this reason alone, he is receptive to the Natal Soul sent to assist him, because he sees his past self in Falling Rain. Stupid and naïve, but with a heart in the right place, and Lei Gong hopes that this young man can do what he failed to do and clear out the rotten ranks of the Imperial Army.

Empowered by the Energy of the Heavens, Lei Gong hurls his cane at the closest Demon, a four-armed, crocodile-headed beast with more teeth than I care to count. Guided by his Chi, the weapon passes through the shadowy barrier raised by the avian Demon for it was not created to block objects with mass. That being said, Lei Gong’s Spiritual Cane is a blunt tipped object incapable of piercing through the croc-Demon’s chitin, so it continues forward without fear. The cane impacts against its scaled shoulder and predictably fails to pierce its flesh, but the true attack was hidden within the Spiritual Cane. A blinding flash illuminates the world as the Lightning Chi stored within courses through the croc-Demon, sparking and electrocuting it until its innards are cooked and glowing. The burnt corpse crashes to the battlements, a smoking husk of what it once was, but the second Demon leaps over its fallen comrade unperturbed. A mistake, one the avian Demon is too slow to correct, for though it protects its remaining ally from blasts of lighting coming from the front, Lei Gong’s cane shoots out from the corpse and buries itself in the second Demon’s belly, wherein we see an encore of the Lord of Thunder’s performance as he unleashes yet another surge of high voltage into his foe.

All simple and easy enough, sure, except Lei Gong only just learned how to Guide his cane with such explosive power from afar, a lesson imparted to him by Falling Rain’s Natal Soul. It’s not just Guiding, but also Amplification and Reverberation as well, not to mention a dash of Domain and the right flow of Chi to set the weapon dancing to the user’s Will. The how is less important that the results however, which are electrifying to say the least, and the second Demon collapses atop the first in a neat little pile. The rest of the soldiers only saw a flash of light and two claps of thunder in quick succession, but once their vision is restored, the sight of two fallen Demons sets their spirits to soaring in good cheer. Never one to lose focus in the middle of a fight, Lei Gong fixates on his third and final foe, the Shadow-Blessed avian Demon which falters in place now that its allies are no more. Bellowing in fury, Lei Gong charges forward past the fallen Demons to engage the last one standing, leaving his cane behind to engage his foe with empty hands crackling with lightning ready to discharge, and the avian Demon responds with taloned fingers shrouding in darkness and shadow.

Only to realize too late that it’s been tricked as it detects the Lord of Thunder’s Spiritual Cane hurtling headlong towards it, the weapon’s movements hidden by Lei Gong’s stocky frame and flashes of lightning, yet revealed all the same by the Demon’s Spiritual Senses. Raising its arms to block the attack, it gathers the shadows and hardens it to defend against the physical attack, but Lei Gong is two steps ahead. Lightning lashes out from his palms to dispel the darkness, allowing the cane to pass through unhindered and strike true, burying itself deep in the avian Demon’s opened beak with a heavy thunk and choked-off squawk.

Only for the burly Lord of Thunder to come crashing in to drive his weapon home. Even this much isn’t enough to kill the Demon, but Lei Gong is far from done as he materializes his Domain through and beyond his weapon embedded in the avian Demon’s throat. Chi and Heavenly Energy both flow out from the cane, not in a smooth, continuous plane but in a chaotic tangle of messy lines that weave in, out, and around one another in an eruption of light and electricity. That’s how it appears to my Spiritual Senses, but the soldiers in Meng Sha see a blade of Lightning pierce clean through the avian Demon and claim its life in a single blow. This is no momentary flash of power like all the Lightning attacks before it, but a Honed, Reverberating, Domain enhanced Chi working which courses with power overwhelming. Cackling in unbridled glee and delight, Lei Gong effortlessly draws his immaterial blade from the Demon’s corpse with a resounding boom of thunder before turning it against the Mataram Clansmen gathered on the walls. Thunder rumbles like a stampede of hooves, drowning out all other sounds of battle as Lei Gong slaughters all who stand before him with his blade of lightning, one which claims life after life while leaving flesh, bone, and Runic plate untouched save for a few blackened contact burns.

And so another beacon of hope is lit as any and all who see this are emboldened and enlivened, whispering of how Lei Gong no longer qualifies as a mere ‘lord’, but deserves to be known as the veritable God of Thunder in the flesh.

That is the greatest success around, and there are several smaller victories to be found all around, but there is still the matter of Mataram YuChun and YuGan. Even as I deliberate on which one to direct Lei Gong’s efforts at, my heart seizes up in terror at the sight of my beloved Yan making a beeline over towards the former. The balls on this woman, for my sweet, headstrong wife has set the Ten-Thousand Spears in her sights, and all I can do is curse at the Natal Soul assigned to her for not keeping her ambitions in check. Then again, it’s not like I could even if I wanted to, so I can’t really blame myself for not trying, but that doesn’t absolve me of blame for just leaving Yan to her own devices. Okay, yea, she’s a boss and can do her own thing, because she don’t need no man to approve of her actions, but it is the sheer height of stupidity to take on a Peak Expert who is clearly heads and shoulders above the crowd.

Knowing there’s no convincing Yan otherwise, I set into motion a plan to at least send her some support, but alas, YuChun’s current opponents are of no help. Two headstrong Society Adherents are currently locked in bitter battle with him, their anger surging over the loss of their third comrade lying dead at Yuchun’s feet. Well, one of them is angry, the other a little pleased, because he never liked his dead ally, though he’s considerably scared of YuChun’s prowess. The Society Adherents both feel outmatched and are a hair’s breadth from fleeing in terror, but they both fear Situ Chi Gan even more, because they know what he will do to them, their families, and their factions if they were to abandon their posts. Nothing overt as destroying them outright, but the price paid would be far more costly than their meagre lives, so they stand their ground and spin their wheels in an effort to come up with some plan to ensure their survival for as long as possible.

None of which includes putting their trust in Legate Falling Rain, which is why the three Natal Souls assigned here are standing around and twiddling their thumbs like the idiots they are.

“Executive Orders,” I Send, and they all jump to attention before realizing it’s just another Natal Soul. Not that they’d treat Prime Me any differently, but we’re a jumpy bunch by nature. “Help Yan.” Orders all three were ready to argue until they actually received them, but they are more than happy to join hands and merge with our beloved wife, which is far more palatable than doing so with some dusty old Warriors who we don’t even know or like. At the same time, I dole out orders to other Natal Souls who are in similar straits, stuck in limbo because they can’t find anyone useful to help or because their assigned targets have already died, but not all of them go to Yan. She’s got more than enough Heavenly Energy, but even if I gave her everything I had, that still wouldn’t be enough to ensure she can take down her target without dying.

An outcome I will not allow, because even though I am but a copy of my real self, my love for Yan is still real enough to matter.

A shot rings out from the battlements and it’s soon echoed by several others as my Spiritual Rifle bearing infantry all fire upon YuChun, with an extra added shot from OuYang Yuhuan who still hasn’t quite got the hang of her rifle just yet. Deadly as the weapons are, they’re not so effective against Peak Experts without the element of surprise, and YuChun has kept his guard up after losing his favourite son to those same weapons. Kinda fucked up that he had a favourite, so fuck him and fuck his son because they’re a bunch of murderous bastards. A skilled murderous bastard however, as YuChun plummets tot the battlements and slides out of the way of every bullet aimed at him. The second volley misses as well as he sets his boots to skimming across the parapets, and impressive as it is, I can sense his frustration and tell that he’s only doing this because he’s not confident he can avoid the bullets while dancing around in the sky like his father and Naaran. That makes me feel a little better about Prime Me’s lacking skills since even a Peak Expert like YuChun has room to improve, but there’s no time to celebrate minor victories as the next part of my plan comes into play.

For despite having free reign to fight anywhere he would like, Mataram YuChun has been lingering around where my retinue is stationed in the hopes of getting a clean strike on the man who killed his son, the ever-vigilant Old Bulat who keeps weaving in and out of the crowd to fire his Domain-imbued bullets.

A useful skill that, one I’ve taken, examined, and disseminated amongst a select few individuals, including one woman who has yet to really make her presence known upon the battlefield. She’s been here from the start, but she’s never been one to stand out, despite being both skilled and beautiful in her own right. Then again, part of this might well be due to her position on the battlefield, with boots in the sand alongside her comrades guarding the Irregulars, but make no mistake, Sai Chou is a talent few can match with bow or axe alike, and she showcases her talents here as she lines up her difficult shot and lets loose at a target she can barely pick out from the crowd.

And yet, her shot flies true, for she is one with the Bow, and one with the Arrow, a feat I fear will forever remain beyond my reach.

An arrow is much slower than a bullet, but much quieter as well, a sub-sonic projectile that even a regular Martial Warrior can smack out of the air. That being said, there are many, many, many more arrows flying about then there are bullets, so even though Mataram YuChun hears Sai Chou’s arrow hurtling towards him, he doesn’t register the danger until it is almost too late. A slight turn of his head, that’s all it takes to ensure the arrow strikes his helmet instead of his cheek, but unlike every other arrow flying through the air, Sai Chou’s arrowhead is encapsulated in a severed shard of her Domain. The Domain itself is not Honed, Reverberating, or Amplified, for Sai Chou lacks the skills to do such a thing, and truth be told, so do I. Aside from Mom and Dastan, I don’t really know anyone else who can imbue destructive energy into their Domain and use it to injure and kill on its own, but that’s okay. Sai Chou’s severed shard of Domain is similar to the arrow itself, merely a mechanism to deliver the true killing blow hidden inside.

A strange and unknown Chi skill Bulat developed himself, in a pique of rage over how unfair it was for the Enemy to all be clad in Runic armour.

Unlike his father, YuChun is not a half-Demon, but whole human encased in Runic steel. Probably because his talents are even greater than his father’s, with potential still yet to be tapped. It just goes to show that they’re not wholly unhinged and unaware of the consequences, but while YuGan was willing to pay the price, he was not willing to let his son to do the same. A good thing for us, because Bulat’s new working is an.. Unravelling, of sorts, as that’s what it does. I hesitate to call it a ‘dispelling’ force, because rather than unmake a Chi working, it neutralizes any ‘unnatural’ changes made in the material world by Will or Domain, hence the new and made-up term, ‘Unravel’. From what I can tell, it’s similar to what happens when two Blessings interact, resulting in a net zero effect as they cancel one another out, which is exactly what happens when the Chi skill impacts against YuChun’s Runic helmet.

As the ties binding the physical and metaphysical come apart, the Runes engraved into the steel helmet become little more than pretty carvings etched into the metal itself. A micro-second later, the full force of Sai Chou’s arrow hammers home against mundane steel, and the results are most satisfying to behold. Designed only for its looks and relying on the Runes to bestow protection, the helmet does nothing as the arrow drills through the thin metal and digs deep into soft flesh before stopping as it strikes bone, and YuChun reels in place even as his lungs fill with air for a scream he has yet to unleash.

Credit where credit is due, the Ten Thousand Spears is a survivor. Taking to the skies in search of escape, he slips away from the two Society Adherents rushing in to engage him, but I am a man who plans for the worst. As such, Yan is already in position above him and strikes before he registers her presence, her scything Wind Blades hammering home against YuChun’s exposed face. Spinning about to avoid the bulk of the damage, he hunkers down and raises his spear to cover his throat while Healing for all he’s worth, using Panacea of all things to avoid instant death as the Wind Blades almost decapitate him. Quick on her feet as ever, Yan utilizes her Wind Domain to condense a whirlwind inside an orb no larger than a grape and sends it at her foe with a beatific grin of murderous delight. I have never been more turned on in my life, which admittedly is better measured in seconds rather than minutes, but even this is not enough to kill Mataram YuChun as a watery tentacle rises up to smash Yan’s Exploding Wind out of the air in a spray of water and mist.

Fucking Pudge is back, but my enemies are out here playing checkers while I’m playing 4d chess.

Before YuChun can even heave a sigh of relief, a beam of fiery hot light smashes into him from below, proving exactly why most Warriors prefer to fight on the ground. In taking to the skies, he’s opened himself up to attacks from below, an opportunity my beloved Mila was just waiting for from her place on the beach. With a little advanced warning and a full Core recharge from a friendly Natal Soul, she’s firin’ her lazors at one of the most dangerous Peak Experts around, an attack which smashes into him and almost overloads his still working Runic Armour in one go. There’s no Unravelling there, just plain old raw power and the heat of the god-damn sun as Mila unleashes her ultimate attack once again, one powered by the lives of my brethren.

Alas, even this is not enough to kill Mataram YuChun, and I’ve no moves left to make as he Cloud-Steps away to safety over the Defiled encampment. Somehow, he was able to mount a defense against Mila’s laser, one that left him with horrific burns across the entirety of his naked, charred body, his flesh and armour all melted away and leaving him as one, giant, cauterized wound, yet doing nothing to quell his rage and fury. The pain is nothing to him compared to the injury to his pride, for he is a Warrior standing close to the peak, yet he has been done in today by two young girls who he sees as beneath even his sons. A grievous wound this is, but one he will eventually recover from, or so he believes.

Not because his pride is so weak as to crumble from a single loss. No, Mataram YuChun is a determined man and stalwart Warrior, someone who could have been the second Living Legend of his generation after Ryo Dae Jung, but alas, his Clan has led him astray. There is only anger and hatred left within his heart, most of it directed towards the Empire but no small amount pointed at Mila and Yan, which means there is no mercy in mine as I watch three mute Aspirants materialize around him and drive their swords into his crisp flesh.

A suicidal attack, one I did not order, but one all three Aspirants were all too happy to deliver the moment they saw their chance, for they find their past sins and silent existence too heavy to bear much longer. There is only pride and relief in their hearts as the Demons and Champions tear them apart, for death represents the freedom and contrition they so desperately desired. Even if they’d accepted my offer to free them from their Oaths, they each believe they would have succumbed to despair in time, but I still shed a tear for their deaths. I don’t know the full extent of their sins, or the burdens they bear, but the help and information they provided was instrumental to my continued success. I’d hoped to one day break their Oaths, learn their names, and raise a drink to their honour, but now this day will never come to pass. Such is the Path of a General, to leave a mountain of corpses in his wake, and my mountain has grown that much bigger today.

A rousing victory that comes at great cost, but the soldiers of the Empire cheer all the same, not knowing the names of the heroes who died to make it happen or the Natal Souls that gave up everything along the way.

Much as I would like to take a moment to grieve, I cannot spare anymore time, for in my distraction to take down YuChun, I have left YuGan too long unrestrained. Losing his grandson didn’t affect him much, but YuChun was his pride and joy, and the Demon with YuGan encourages his rage and feeds on it all the same. Seething with fury, denial, and dejection, YuGan erupts into a storm of destruction as his spear smashes against Naaran’s time and time again, and finally, the grizzled old man lowers his emotional barriers to let a little something of himself leak through. A massive pang of regret for so very many things, but entwined with a warm and fond farewell directed to someone below, someone here in Meng Sha who cannot hear him, but someone he loves all the same.

And like that, the answer comes to me in a burst of inspiration, nothing Heaven sent or extraordinary, because I recognize this specific kind of love, as warm and pure as any. It is not the love of family, or love of another person even, nor is it the impersonal love of duty, bloodshed, or the Empire. This is a simple love, straightforward and undemanding, one born from a lifetime of camaraderie and companionship without even a single tint of conflict or betrayal. It is a love that is dependent, yet also supportive at the same time, unyielding and eternal for as long as there is life, and I deliver said love to its intended recipient, even though Naaran never intended for his love to be known.

Yet know this, Kharuul does, the biggest heckin’ chonker of a quin I’ve ever met, and more importantly, Naaran’s loyal mount and companion. Who would’ve thunk it? Naaran is a floof lover, just like me.

Unlike his closed off master however, Kharuul is more than happy to accept my help as he utters a piercing, chittering cry and pounces through the air at the Mataram Patriarch, much to Naaran’s dismay. He knows there’s a vast disparity between a Spiritual Beast and even a normal Peak Expert that few animals could ever surpass, but what he doesn’t know is that despite having fought at his side for so many years, Kharuul has never once gone all out in battle. This means that in spite of his formidable strength, he has never once wholly exerted his Will in a do or die effort, but that’s just the way animals are. Why fight to the death when you could escape to live another day? That’s the mindset most animals live by, but in order to save the human he adopted so long ago and loves every bit as much as his pups, Kharuul the Spiritual Quin is finally ready to throw down.

So ready that he draws so much of my help that I can barely string together a coherent thought anymore, but I remember to pass the mantle of leadership to another Natal Soul along with all the tools he’ll need before embracing my ultimate fate. Terrified as I am by the prospect of imminent death, I also find it a relief in a way, because much like the silent Aspirants who gave their lives to bring down Mataram YuChun, I am now finally freed from the heavy burden of responsibility, and can go out doing what I love best.

Never once has Kharuul let me hug his floof, but now I can metaphysically snuggle him for all I’m worth. Honestly, there are far worse ways to go, and worse causes to die for, so I close my eyes and sink into the warm floof of Kharuul’s soul without a care in the world for what comes next.

That’s Prime Me’s problem now, because my work here is done.

Chapter Meme