There was a fine line between confidence and arrogance, one Hideo struggled to navigate without falling victim to the latter, but since reaffirming his convictions, he would dare say he’d done better than most would in his place.

It was all thanks to the triumvirate of virtues he held above all others, tempering his confidence with diligence and humility. Having come so far in so short a period of time, he yearned to test his limits and see how high he’d truly risen, but it was safer to take things one step at a time. Powerful though his physical body might be, he was under no illusion that his bare skin, flesh, or bones could ward off a Honed blade or Amplified thrust, and any injuries to his improved physique required far more Chi to Heal than before. That being said, it was still a struggle to rein in his arrogance while knowing he could largely ignore almost every opponent not carrying a Spiritual Weapon, especially when he saw first-hand how even the Peak Experts of the Mataram Clan kept a wary eye on the movements of the crossbow-wielding commoners. Falling Rain’s Irregulars had many an Imperial Noble shaking in their boots as well no doubt, terrified their Peak Expert relatives were no longer enough to keep the riffraff at bay. There was no Chi skill to prevent oneself from being shot in the back, and there were many more commoners and crossbows than there were Peak Experts.

And once the commoners picked up on this themselves, then Peak Experts might well be forced to emulate Divinities who spent their entire lives under a cloak of Concealment in order to avoid an untimely death delivered by an unseen dagger. Why Falling Rain would encourage such a future was a mystery to be sure, though it was entirely plausible that the savage runt was wholly ignorant of the far-ranging consequences of his short-sighted actions.

Bows and crossbows were no threat to Hideo however, for he could stride naked through a storm of bolts and arrows without using any Chi and still emerge with only cuts and bruises so long as he exercised a bare modicum of caution. Before his ignoble death, Yuanyin handily demonstrated that even a barrage from those hateful Spiritual Rifles used by Falling Rain’s lackies weren’t powerful enough to kill him, the bullets destroying flesh on impact but merely fracturing bone for the most part, save for areas where Yuanyin was most vulnerable, like his eyes. Not because he’d been negligent when Refining his physique, for Hideo shared this same vulnerability and many others he wouldn’t care to pit against a crossbow bolt. The soft flesh of his neck, under his armpit, or around his groin among other areas, but not even the Uniter had a solution for ridding the human body of these weaknesses. There was a limit to how much one could refine those areas without negatively affecting his flexibility, mobility, or other important aspects beyond sheer durability, for even Cultivators were still mortals yet.

That being said, Hideo’s physique alone wasn’t what gave him the confidence to stride onto the battlefield in silken clothes alone. The entire two-week journey to Meng Sha had been spent learning how to utilize his Domain under the Uniter’s personal guidance, a feat which was laughably easy once he grasped how to perceive it. Not with his physical senses, but his Spiritual ones, so his Domain was no longer a thin, invisible film covering his body that he more or less could feel was there. After Forming his Golden Core and entwining it with his mind and soul both, his Spiritual Senses had improved by leaps and bounds allowing him to perceive even the most subtle stirrings of Chi around him, which in turn meant he could feel the changes in how he manipulated his Domain and shaped it with Will alone. Just a few days of practice was enough to familiarize himself with the sensation and now his Domain was every bit a part of him as his arms and legs, responding so smoothly there was hardly a need to even think and focus about what he wanted from it.

His dynamic entrance onto the battlefield was proof positive of his staggering development, showcasing not just his fine control of his Domain, but also how large it had grown in size. It’d been so laughably easy even the memory of it filled him with glee, so satisfying to watch as his Domain billowed out to cover the entirety of the towering gates and bring it down with a single Mountain Collapsing Stomp. An impossible feat for the Hideo of yesteryear, because even though it was the same Mountain Collapsing Stomp, a hinged gate was different from a stone wall. The latter was fixed in place and had only two choices, to endure or break, but the former was built to yield without breaking. How embarrassing would it have been if Hideo marched up to kick down the gates only to leave a dent in the otherwise unmarked metal, or worse, driven his boot through metal and wood both and gotten his leg stuck in the process? No, this feat had only been possible because of the rapid expansion of his Domain, for before, even centimetres would be too large a unit to measure it by, but now it extended out exactly five metres and eighteen centimetres from his skin in all directions while at its resting state. When necessary, he could stretch it even further to approximately nine metres, though it was difficult to say if that was equidistant on all sides, nor was it a size he could maintain for more than a few minutes.

This was a Domain far beyond what even the greatest Peak Experts could match, but still fell far short of even the weakest Divinities, for reasons Hideo now understood as clear as day. The Core he Created before was flawed and defective, and the same could be said of the Cores of every Martial Warrior outside of those loyal to the Imperial Clan. The result of a war of misinformation waged by the various Emperors of the Azure Sea over the past several millennia, an unseen yoke slipped around the throats of the outer provinces to ensure Eastern superiority reigned supreme. While the specifics of the matter escaped him, he likened it to building atop a crumbling foundation, which was why the Martial Warriors of the Outer Provinces were unable to grow their Domains beyond a few centimetres. They simply lacked the infrastructure to support it and the Spiritual senses to realize their failings, a most simple and insidious flaw combined with a weakness which made it near impossible for the outer provinces to solve, like asking a blind man to sort a pile of linens by colour. In spite of his limitations, the Uniter discovered how to overcome this weakness and now Hideo’s Golden Core provided more than enough support for his Domain to break through those unseen limits, and they would both only continue to grow as he progressed along his Path.

Already he’d seen no small improvements over the last two weeks, and this was only the beginning. Today, he would kill Falling Rain, tomorrow, the Dog Emperor, and then he would have words with Zhen Shi and Vyakhya regarding their disappointing lack of faith…

As for his current level of strength, kicking down a gate was the least of what he could do with his Domain, something he hadn’t even practiced beforehand. The true value of his new and improved Domain lay in its ability to defend him from all manner of attacks, which was where the bulk of his time had been spent practicing. Whether the attack be physical, elemental, mental, or emotional in nature, his Domain was all he needed to ward it off regardless of the vector. It wasn’t so simple as Deploying his Domain, but required he compress it down into three, razor-thin layers to weave a synergistic defense, one the Uniter unimaginatively called ‘Domain Armour’. The outermost layer relied on Reinforcement and Compression to form a nigh-impenetrable ‘plate’ of Domain, one harder than any steel which could ward off Honed Blades and Amplified thrusts alike. It was so sturdy, Hideo could stand idly by as the Transcendent Gen rained blows down upon him for a full minute without taking damage, and even longer if he cared enough to actively defend himself. This was in no small part thanks to the middle layer of his Domain Armour, which used Reverberation and Deflection to absorb or divert all manner of forces, whether it be something as mundane as blunt impact, rare like extreme heat and cold, or more esoteric like attacks to the Soul such as those delivered by Zheng Luo’s zither. As for the innermost layer, this was the foundation of the entire framework, and thus the most important layer of all, because not only did it support the other two layers, it also allowed him to more easily Externally Reinforce, Amplify, Lighten, and Stabilize himself in combat by exerting his Internal Chi skills on the layer itself. A novel experience to be sure, like wearing a second skin that pushed you along when you wanted to run or jump, and Hideo looked forward to the day when he learned how to revise the Mountain Collapsing Strike in the same way.

With this Domain Armour, Hideo was like a tiger given wings, able to match an average Peak Expert in strength, agility, and speed, but it was not without its downsides. The most obvious one was that it required an effort of Will to maintain, to say nothing of the sizable amount of Chi siphoned away with each blow. It was the same as Runic Armour, except better because it offered increased flexibility at the cost of constant upkeep. Hideo could set limits on his Domain Armour to ignore any forces under a certain threshold to lower consumption, or gather his defenses at one point to better withstand a powerful attack which might otherwise break through, or make any number of modifications on the fly to better suit his needs. Against the Transcendent Gen, he could set his Domain Armour to dissipate heat as quickly as possible to defend against his pillars of flame, or create a layer solely meant to shield him from scouring water when facing the Water-Blessed Transcendent.

The possibilities were nigh endless so long as Hideo had the Will and intelligence to use his Domain Armour effectively. The easiest change to make would be to put on a set of Runic Armour and limit himself to using only the innermost layer of Domain Armour alone, which would require much less focus to maintain, but after seeing the lamentable fates of all who trusted him, Hideo knew better than to place his fate in the Uniter’s hands. In all likelihood, Gen had been wholly unaware of the drawbacks when merging with his Runic Armour, though those limits to his progress were no barrier to him now that the Transcendent was wholly in control, but as far as Hideo could tell, there was no discernable difference between the Runic Armour worn by the Chosen of Heaven and the Runic Armour worn by those like Mataram YuGan who’d merged with the Transcendent within.

Meaning in all likelihood, there was no difference, and Hideo would be a fool to wear any Runic Armour crafted by the Uniter or his minions.

Not an issue as far as Hideo was concerned, for even a passing familiarity with Domain Armour gave him the confidence needed to stride into battle unarmed and unarmoured, while he had his cadre to protect him from surprise attacks. Although the Uniter could order them to turn on Hideo, the old schemer still needed his pawns and proxies to do what needed to be done. For all his bluster of overthrowing the Dog Emperor, it was clear that he lived in perpetual fear for his life, as evidenced by how Hideo had never even met him face to face. Gen had, as did Vithar and many of the savage tribal chieftains, but even Wisdom Vyakhya did not warrant a personal meeting with the Uniter, and Hideo suspected it was because he wasn’t even in the Western Province and still hiding outside the borders of the Empire itself.

All this and more passed through Hideo’s mind in the blink of an eye as he Healed his wounds and frantically tried to find some way to escape from these dire straits.

A wild beast clad in human flesh, there was no other way Hideo could describe her, this most monstrous of monsters Mei Lin. So fetching and cherubic in appearance, yet so bloodthirsty and merciless in demeanour, the sight of her readied to strike was almost endearing if he hadn’t experienced firsthand how fearsome she truly was. Others might still be taken in by her playful disposition, girlish movements, and deceptively light-hearted expressions, but Hideo could sense the killing intent pouring off of her in an unending gale and it chilled him to the bone. There was no anger, no hatred, nor even minor animosity in her actions, only a driven desire to see him dead and gone, but not before she had her fill of fun. Those wide, brown eyes which once seemed like limpid autumn pools were now windows into the soul of a determined killer, one who was so inexperienced she should rightly prove no threat, yet learned so quickly with each exchange he wondered if it was all an act. She had a way about her that made her look oh-so dainty and adorable, and the manic fixation and murderous intent was part and parcel of it all, a quality hidden just beneath the surface which one would expect from a bloody blackguard who hunted and killed humans for sport rather than fame, honour, glory, or even gold. The curious tilt of her head, the darling set of her jaw, the lackadaisical manner with which she swung her arms and skipped about as if playing a merry game of tag, almost every visible facet of Mei Lin’s persona stood in stark contrast to the feral killer he sensed inside, and it was this discrepancy of a human face being worn by someone who was anything but which unnerved him so.

These were the mannerisms of a predator playing with her prey, and Hideo saw himself reflected in Mei Lin’s honest, wide-eyed stare as a dead man walking.

Never before had he felt so helpless against a foe, so utterly outmatched and overwhelmed. This was no girl, but an Ancestral Beast, and though Mei Lin was apparently not a Divinity, Hideo had never felt the need to distinguish the two before today. How was he supposed to fight someone capable of overturning the Heavens in her anger? Supposedly she lacked the ability to do so, but he could hardly take it on good faith, especially after seeing how beloved by the Heavens she truly was. The Energy of the Heavens leapt to obey her Will in a way he’d never seen before today, offering her a burst of speed, power, or durability whenever she needed it most, and who knew what else it offered her? This was the first time he truly felt he had no recourse in a match, though to be honest, he’d never taken a fight he wasn’t at least somewhat confident of winning. Even accounting for the rare times when he lost, against Dastan, Fung, and Zheng Luo, he’d never once believed he was the inferior Warrior, for he’d not lost to his foes, but to himself. His own personal failings led to his defeat, not the strength of his foes, for if he’d been more confident, diligent, and humble, then he would stand undefeated under Heaven. Alas, he was too stubborn to acknowledge this truth early on, so those bitter defeats were much needed lessons which led him to his current staggering heights, and yet still he was no match for the Ancestral Beast Mei Lin. There was something fierce and primal in the way she moved, so utterly unlike anything Hideo had ever seen before, darting, hopping, and twirling about with effortless grace, superlative speed, and a carefree gaiety that belied belief. All the while, her decisions were wholly lacking in sound logic or predictable reasoning, as if everything she did was based on pure, unfettered instinct.

Which meant that even if Hideo was unable to predict her next move, it was easy enough to anticipate her next attack a fraction of a second before she delivered it.

This was one of the first lessons he learned from his failure of a Mentor, how to read your opponents. To demonstrate, Old Juichi spent an hour avoiding every last one of Hideo’s attacks without setting foot outside a single square metre, one conveniently outlined by the stone tiles of the family sparring grounds. At the time, it seemed like magic to Hideo, as if the old bastard knew his every thought before he even thought them, but it was merely a matter of experience. There was nothing magical about guessing your opponent’s target by tracking his eyes, or seeing the arc of a slash in the set of a Warrior’s shoulders before he even raised his weapon. The body had a thousand different ways of giving away your intent, and Mei Lin’s body was so honest and forthcoming Hideo could see her attacks coming almost a full heartbeat in advance.

While it might not sound like much, a heartbeat was all he needed to raise his arms in defense as she pounced towards him with arms outstretched. Not held forward like a true pugilist, ready to jab, punch, grapple, or block, but held out to either side and trailing behind, like a child running through a field without a care in the world. Despite this laughable stance, her speed was startling to behold, faster than even what he could manage with his Refined Physique and Domain Armour helping him along, but not so fast that he couldn’t at least keep up. This was all he could do however, see her attacks coming, raise his guard, and fall back to minimize damage, for all his attempts to Deflect or dodge ended in absolute failure.

Not that he was any better off blocking, for as her dainty palm strike landed on his raised forearms, his Domain Armour simply shattered before her might, exposing him to the full weight of her attack.

Though the palm strike itself seemed like little more than a dainty slap delivered by tiny, uncalloused hands wrapped in a fine silk scarf, the impact shredded both of Hideo’s forearms and sent him reeling back several steps, some of which were intentional to avoid the brunt of her strike, while others were most certainly not. Infuriating is what it was, for a suit of Runic Armour would have saved him much grief here today, but how was he to know coming in that he’d run into an adolescent Ancestral Hare capable of shattering his Domain Armour with little more than a touch? It was such a strange Chi working, one he’d never seen, and he was desperate to uncover the secrets behind it.

Not for the sake of curiosity, but because if he knew the exact mechanism she was using to break through his defenses, then he could add in countermeasures against her. She wasn’t cleaving through his defenses with Honing, nor was she tearing them apart through raw Reinforced strength, both of which would have been countered with Deflection. It wasn’t Reverberation tearing his Domain asunder from within either, nor was it a well-timed and well-aimed effort of Amplification to break through in one fell swoop. His Domain just kept shattering no matter how many times he reformed it, not breaking in one specific area where force was applied or pierced through by a focused strike, but just coming apart at the seams before even coming into contact with her palm, like the waves parted before the bow of a ship. Even as he watched, there was nothing he could do to keep his Domain Armour from dissolving into a loose and formless cloud of Chi, one which spread out in all directions until it was stretched so thin that his Will could no longer keep it from merging with the Heavens once more.

In military terms, it’s as if Hideo’s soldiers were fleeing before every charge and leaving the targets they were meant to be guarding wholly vulnerable and exposed, rendering his Domain Armour to be about as useful as a light spray of mist.

Again, Hideo had time to Heal and recuperate before Mei Lin’s next attack, so he sought to turn the tides of battle before his vast reserves of Chi eventually ran out. A more experienced combatant would not have given him the room to breathe, but fierce and formidable though she might be, she was clearly no Warrior. Though she had a knack for knowing when and where to attack, she put no thought into her follow through or next step. As such, she had no choice but to stop and assess the situation to see if there were any new dangers about, whether it be Monk Eyebrows’ match against his furious, rotund counterpart, or the silent stare-down between Divinities taking place all around them, or any of the soldiers filtering in behind him. Until she was certain it was safe to strike, she wouldn’t attack again, which gave Hideo all the time he needed to prepare for her next attack and even spare some time to uncover the mystery of just how in the hell she kept dispersing his Domain Armour.

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“Sacrifice the middle layer to strengthen the cohesion,” the Uniter ‘helpfully’ supplied, and even though Hideo understood the words well enough, he had no earthly idea what it all meant. While trying to parse through the message, Mei Lin attacked yet again, and Hideo paid a dear price for his distraction as her palm slipped through a gap in his defenses to settle firmly atop his chest. Light as a feather, that’s how her fingers felt upon his robes, barely more than a gentle touch, yet the impact sent him staggering backwards before falling on his ass and coming to a complete stop. Leaping back to his feet in unseemly haste, he moved to raise his defenses, only for a hacking cough to interrupt his efforts as he spurted a mouthful of blood and no small amount of scattered tissue from his damaged lungs.

So this was what it meant to cough up blood, a decidedly unpleasant experience he would not like to repeat, as if the blood in his body had tried to flow in reverse and even now was still stuck in his throat and nose.

“The principle behind her attacks is one of dispersal,” the Uniter continued, his tone curt and words clipped as if angered by this embarrassing display, but he shared as much of the blame as Hideo himself. Imperial Officers had aides for a reason, because Sending messages in the midst of combat was distracting and counter-productive, yet the Uniter thought it fine and dandy to give lessons while Hideo fought for dear life. The old bastard didn’t even have the decency to keep his message plain and simple, but instead spoke in the same long-winded manner he always used. “Similar to how a cold draft cuts through a warm room, this young Ancestral Hare is using her Chi to displace your own. A combination of Honing to sever the bonds of your Chi working and Deflection to scatter it, with an added element of offensive Lightening this Sovereign has never before seen, imparting a buoyancy to the surrounding metaphysical fabric of reality which encourages the dispersal. Most interesting indeed, but easily countered by tightening the weaves of your Domain Armour and binding the layers more closely together to prevent your Chi from scattering in the first place. Think of it like a string stretched taut, only to snap and shoot away, so you braid the string with another to keep it from breaking.”

As if Hideo was supposed to understand all that from ‘Strengthen the cohesion’.

Redeploying his Domain Armour was simple enough, requiring only a moment of focus to direct his Will, and with more practice, even this much wouldn’t be needed. It was similar to training in one specific Movement over and over again, until performing it became second nature. Modifying his Domain Armour was far more difficult, as it was one thing to dress yourself, but another thing altogether to tailor your outfit on the fly. Even with the Uniter’s guidance to help him along, Hideo took six more blood-curdling attacks from Mei Lin before he was able to Deploy a modified Domain Armour that he thought could hold out against her, only for his hopes to be cruelly dashed by the next attack. Three more palm strikes later, he Deployed a second version, wherein he abandoned the second layer’s functions altogether in favour of using it to hold the inner and outer layer together. The trade-off was that he would need to be wary of targeted Aura bombardments and manually defend against Zheng Luo’s musical blasts, but as luck would have it, the beautiful and talented Imperial Servant had abandoned her offensive efforts and was instead focusing her talents on bolstering the hearts of Imperial soldiers instead.

The right move, all things considered, because while Zheng Luo’s disharmonic blasts could lead to the deaths of several prominent Mataram Peak Experts, it would mean nothing if the rank and file lost heart and fled the field. Although Zhen Shi’s plan to drive the Imperial army to despair failed to bear fruit, the after effects of such an insidious working were not so easily dispersed, but now Zheng Luo’s rousing melody was filling the hearts of Imperial soldiers with courage and conviction both.

If only she could see past her ingrained misconceptions and accept the truth for what it was, for then she would stand on his side by her own free will, but he would have her one way or another, her and Mei Lin both.

The darling little Ancestral Hare was so fetching and cute, her brow furrowing and cheeks puffing as her dainty little palm landed lightly atop his modified Domain Armour, one which held firm before her efforts to disperse it. Careful not to break her delicate little bones, he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her close with a smile, and so shocked by her failure to injure him, she barely even put up a struggle. “A troublesome little imp, aren’t you,” he murmured, while reaching up with his free hand to stroke her soft, honeyed cheek, so smooth and malleable in spite of her wicked scowl and futile efforts to push his arm away. “So very much like Eri-Hime, in spirit and in form.”

He wanted to say more, pull her in close, perhaps even force a kiss upon her lips and taste her flesh, but the next thing he knew he wasn’t staring in her eyes anymore, but up at the clear, sunny skies overhead. “Ugly,” she declared, and the world shifted as he spun about once, twice, then thrice before coming to an abrupt stop as he crashed into the sandy soil and dug a furrow across the ground. Without the middle layer of his Domain Armour to cushion the impacts, Hideo was feeling the full force of having his head bounced off the ground, which left him dazed and confused in spite of his skull showing not even the hint of a bruise.

How was she able to throw him? Both of her hands had been occupied at the time, one caught in his grasp and the other fending off his touch, but then something pulled his feet out from under him and unceremoniously slammed him into the ground as if he were a thresher meant to separate wheat from the stalk. Feeling a tug on his leg, he glanced down in confusion and found a length of white silk wound about his ankle, with the lovely Mei Lin waving her arms in wide circles while winding the rest of her scarf about her shoulders, pulling it taut and dragging him back so she could fling him around again. Fear bubbled up from within as he met her brown, obstinate eyes, so full of pique and grievance he knew his end would soon arrive. She was done playing now, done indulging her whims, for Hideo had touched her reverse scale and now she was finally ready to kill.

Panic overwhelmed reason as he kicked and struggled against her might, but he might as well have been a fish on a hook fighting against an experienced fisherman. She didn’t waste her strength contesting him as he fought, but simply held firm and let him waste his efforts as she endured and waited. Whenever he paused to breathe or find his bearings, she reeled him in a little more, pulling him closer centimetre by centimetre until he feared his ankle might break. How was she so strong? Not physically, no, for even Reinforcement couldn’t explain how her thin arms were so unyielding and unwavering as they dragged him ever closer to death, so powerful each tug threatened to rip his leg out of its socket.

“No!” The denial erupted from his lips before he even knew he’d spoken, but it was too late for shame now that death was upon him. Turning over onto his belly, he dug his fingers into the packed, sandy dirt and fought for purchase and freedom with all his might. “NOOOO!”

“Foolish worm,” the Uniter snarled, and even through his panic, Hideo could sense the old bastard’s rage. “Useless coward. The Razor’s Edge. Find it. Hold to it. Look upon your foe and see her struggles. This duel is not yet lost, your strengths more evenly matched than you think.” Gasping for air, Hideo fought the urge to keep screaming and reluctantly craned his neck to gaze upon the monster, only to find her puffing for breath the same as him. A sheen of sweat sat atop her brow while her arms and legs trembled with exertion, and her shoulders sat slumped in fatigue, signs Hideo overlooked in his panic. Ancestral Beast though she might be, she was still a young woman unfamiliar with strife and struggle who was fast approaching her limits. The brightest candles burn down fastest, meaning she pushed herself too hard too fast and kept nothing in reserve, whether it be stamina or Chi. That’s how she overwhelmed him so quickly, because he let fear overcome reason and had yet to give this battle his all, but now, clarity and anger gave him new purpose.

Uttering a growl of contempt directed at himself, Hideo pushed himself to his feet and hopped up to go along with the predictable tug, one meant to pull him off balance and send him back to the ground. Turning around in mid-air, he was treated with the sight of Mei Lin’s wide-eyed surprise at his unexpected reversal, and he grinned at her ineptitude. If she had time to be surprised, she had time to react, but she’d wasted her one and only chance to retain the upper hand. While still mid-hop, he Cloud-Stepped towards her with arms outstretched, aiming to tackle her to the ground none-too-gently. Even then, the damnable monster almost dodged aside, but in her haste to evade him, she’d forgotten to untangle her scarf from his ankle. Rather than Cloud-Step a second time, he drove his snared foot down in the air and Deployed his Domain to stomp down on the scarf and stop her in her tracks. Her yelp of surprise was wonderous to behold, her alarm and apprehension a balm for his wounded pride, and as he closed his arms around her lithe, supple frame, he allowed himself a moment to take in the sensation of their first embrace.

Only his moment never arrived as his arms closed in on empty air, and he belatedly noted the piercing pain in his left flank. There, embedded in his Domain Armour was a spear, one that would’ve bounced harmlessly off his defenses if they’d all been in place, but Hideo’s modifications had changed all that. Though the spear failed to pierce through the outer layer, there was no middle layer to shunt away the force of impact, which threw him aside mere moments before he would’ve caught Mei Lin. That wasn’t even the worst of it as the Reverberating aftershocks rippled through his abdomen and set his inner organs to bleeding, but he was not out of the fight just yet. Snarling as he turned to face his attacker, he howled in mixed glee and fury as he sighted the fiery Sumila riding headlong at him with her lance extended, only to blink and find the tip already at his throat. This damnable roosequin was faster on the charge than it had any right to be, launching itself at Hideo in an unbelievable burst of speed, and he had no choice but to take the lance head on.

The world blinked as everything faded into darkness, and he regained consciousness just in time to slam into the ground, though the pain of impact was a mere afterthought compared to the agony radiating from his broken jaw and bleeding organs. Even a Peak Expert on the level of Bai Qi would’ve died to this attack, but Hideo was no lowly Martial Warrior. He was a Cultivator on the path to True Divinity, one who’d Refined his body to near perfection, but that didn’t make the pain any more bearable. Groaning only made it that much worse, but he had no choice but to move as he sensed another threat hurtling towards him from above.

A cloud of sand and dust rose up from where Hideo lay only a fraction of a second ago as an invisible blade of wind scythed into the ground. Pushing himself to his feet, he redeployed his standard Domain Armour just in time to block two successive wind blades with his raised arms while frantically Healing his jaw. Easier said than done, for there was just too much to focus on at once. Gliding through the air like a Celestial being of beauty and wrath, Du Min Yan unleashed a flurry of Wind Blades upon Hideo which hammered home time and time again, while Sumila circled around with her Quin for another charge. What’s more, there was also Li Song and Dastan fighting their way through the crowd with a cadre of elites from Falling Rain’s retinue, Zheng Luo’s musical strumming’s which could turn deadly without notice, to say nothing of Mei Lin who was huffing and puffing for all she was worth in an effort to summon the strength for one last attack.

There was just too much to do and too many threats to account for, how was one man, even a Refined Cultivator like himself, supposed to manage it all?

Kill Falling Rain.

The thought came over him unbidden and he found himself already lunging towards the damnable savage with arm extended. A shard of Honed Domain shot out towards his comatose foe, only for Mei Lin’s infuriating silk scarf to shoot out and shatter his attack in mid-flight. Cloud-Stepping over for the sake of speed and speed alone, he howled in victory as he drove his fist down in a Mountain Collapsing Strike and anticipated how it would feel to render Falling Rain to a pulp. The impact rocked Hideo back on his heels, but instead of soft flesh and brittle bone, he was met with a wall of water more viscous than mud and unyielding as steel as it exploded into a spray of droplets before his strike. The Guardian Turtle’s work no doubt, squealing as it launched a ball of water at him, and the impact shoved him off the docks while his shoes tore up the wood underfoot. Ignoring the pain, he threw himself at Falling Rain again, for the savage runt must die even if –

No, no, no… What was he doing? How could a mere savage’s life be worth more than Hideo’s? He was a Cultivator on the Path to True Divinity, a rising dragon who would one day seize the Emperor’s golden throne for himself, so how could he sacrifice himself here?

Kill Falling Rain.

A moment of hesitation, that’s all it took to cost Hideo his one and only chance, for even as he steeled his resolve and launched a Mountain Collapsing Stomp that would most certainly connect, reality quivered and trembled as a deluge of Heavenly Energy flooded the immediate area. Radiance blinded him as it erupted into existence, a burning incandescence which seared his eyes and drove the air from his lungs while cutting him off from his Spiritual Senses. Time passed in this dark vacuum of nihility as he experienced an eternity of non-existence, unable to even hear the sound of his own beating heart or feel the sensation of his dry, parched mouth. When he finally emerged from the nothingness, he almost wished for the nothing once more, for he found himself lying on sandy soil once again and still in debilitating agony, his body battered and sore despite his nigh-impregnable defenses. Pushing himself up out of the furrow his body had dug in the dirt, he came face to face with a sight he could barely comprehend, for there before his eyes was none other than Falling Rain, emitting a golden light discernable only to the Spiritual Senses. Though still strapped down to his cot on the docks, the savage was comatose no longer, howling in sheer agony as the Energy of the Heavens surged through him in a display of Purity unlike anything the world had ever seen before.

The sound of his screams would haunt Hideo until his dying day, so utterly inhuman in tone and timbre yet so familiar it all but demanded empathy. This was pure, unbridled torment, and Hideo could see why, for here on the docks, Falling Rain had begun refining his physique before all of Meng Sha, and there was nothing Hideo or anyone else could do to stop it.

“And so the Void is Shattered once again, this time by a savage child, no less,” muttered Wisdom Vyakhya, his words barely audible above Falling Rain’s gut-wrenching screams, and only then did Hideo realize the old monk stood behind him. “New waves inevitably overtake the old, yet how can one so young have such attainments? Is the Abbot truly so wise as to have foreseen this outcome, or is this the work of fate conspiring against me? Eh-Mi-Tuo-Fuo, the Path to Nihility was never meant to be easy, but even this seems too much for these old bones to bear.”

No… How could this be? How could Falling Rain have Shattered the Void? Even enlightened and blessed as he was, Hideo was years away from being ready to take this final step, yet this arrogant tribal runt was already on the cusp of Divinity? No, this was impossible, there was no way it could be true, and yet the evidence was right there for Hideo to see and experience as the Energy of the Heavens coursed through the damnable savage in a torrent that might well be felt the world round, or at least that’s how Hideo saw it. Visibly, there were no changes to be seen, just a scrawny runt strapped down to a legless cot while screaming his heart and lungs out, and yet Hideo could not deny the changes he felt taking place, changes that belied his meagre comprehension. There was a solidity to Falling Rain that went beyond the physical, a sense of weight and significance Hideo could not put into words, as if he were standing at the base of Mount WuShan and unable to see the peak from his perspective yet still aware of its grand majesty and presence.

The Heavens were eager and demonstrated their joy, the Heavens were angered and unleashed their rage, the Heavens wept, the Heavens sang, and the Heavens did everything else in between, but still Falling Rain continued to scream while growing ever more significant with each passing second.

And then, without warning, the turmoil came to a complete stop. The Energy of the Heavens rescinded and reality returned to normal, but most jarring of all was how Falling Rain stopped screaming. The resounding silence echoed out into Meng Sha and across the world itself, a stifling blanket of stillness that strangled Hideo where he stood, like a lump in his throat he could not disgorge. A second passed, then another, then a third before his heart resumed beating, the sound and sensation driving off the suffocating silence but there was still no relief to be had.

For Falling Rain stirred and lifted himself up off the docks, still affixed to his cot in a feat of nigh-impossible acrobatics as he pivoted in place to land on his feet –

Only to falter as he became aware of his restraints and freeze in place as momentum brought him back down to the docks where he fell flat on his face with a booming thud heard by all.

“Fuck.” Uttered with all the vehemence of a man wronged, Falling Rain’s cot came apart around him as he pushed himself to his feet and brushed himself off, looking no different from the last time Hideo saw him. He was still short as ever, with a youthful expression and old, tired eyes which spurned everyone and everything he saw, the result of his casual arrogance which was ingrained into his bones. Running his hands through his hair to adjust his bun as he took in his surroundings, his expression lit up as Mei Lin hopped into his arms with a girlish squeal of delight. “Hi wifey.”

“He bullied me hubby!” she declared, and the change in Falling Rain’s expression was terrifying to behold, the calm ocean transformed into a surging tsunami of rage and vengeance as he followed his little wifey’s finger to find Hideo at the other end. There wasn’t even time for regret before the world came crashing down upon him, and in a daze of bewildered retrospection, Hideo marvelled at how neatly his Domain Armour had been undone. It wasn’t raw power or a focused thrust which broke through his defenses, nor was it similar to Mei Lin’s dispersal. Instead, as Falling Rain’s punch hurtled towards Hideo’s still mending jaw, his Domain Armour was rent away by a whirling tide of Honed Chi that tore through all three layers in the blink of an eye.

Which went on to tear through Wisdom Vyakhya’s Domain Armour as well, as the old monk intercepted the blow on Hideo’s behalf.

The crack of bone was audible to all as Falling Rain’s forearm broke upon impact as his fist slammed into the old monk’s palm, but if you only saw his disgruntled expression, you would think having his bones protruding from his flesh was merely some minor inconvenience. The savage retracted his arm with his scowl, his wound mending so quickly Hideo wasn’t sure if he’d imagined it in the first place, and only then did Wisdom Vyakhya speak. “Eh-Mi-Tuo-Fuo, such ignorance, such sin. Ascension is unheard of in one so young and deserving of admiration, yet your first act as a Divinity would be to violate the long-standing Treaty of inaction? Tread carefully child, lest you bring down death and destruction to the world itself in your haste to shed blood and wreak havoc.”

Cracking his neck and fingers like a barroom thug, Falling Rain flashed his hateful, insolent grin before summoning his weapons to him, the shimmering steel of his sword and shield shooting over from behind and into his hands as he took an aggressive stance, while his polearm stood upright behind him without any support. “I don’t remember signing no treaty,” he declared, a statement so chilling Hideo didn’t even have it in him to react, though a chorus of gasps rang out from the crowd. “Nor would I have to, as I am no Divinity. Move aside you dusty bag of bones, for my wifey has been bullied and I will see the perpetrator brought to justice.”

“I don’t need justice hubby,” Mei Lin declared, struggling to hold back a tide of wildcats, bears, and rabbits from charging at the hateful runt. “Just kill him dead, ya?”

“Not a Divinity you say?” Shaking his head in scorn, Wisdom Vyakhya continued, “A bald-faced lie, or true ignorance on your part? This Wisdom knows not which would be more contemptible. Whether you admit it or not and implausible as it might seem, you are one capable of wielding the raw Energy of the Heavens, and thus you are restricted by the Treaty. Act again, and this Wisdom will have no choice but to respond in kind and accept the sin of the countless deaths which will follow.”

“You know,” Falling Rain began, flourishing his sword with a dark smile that sent chills down Hideo’s spine, “I’m getting real sick and tired of your hypocrisy. Every time, it’s the Enemy warning the Empire to adhere to the Treaty while you keep pushing the limits to see how much interference we’ll accept, because you know we have no choice. We actually care about the people we defend, whereas you and yours would see us all dead and gone. Isn’t that your endgame? Your so-called truth? You aim to break the cycle of reincarnation and render this world unto nihility, because only then will you be free of all worldly distraction and able to focus on your Path.” Shrugging in his customary dismissive manner, the runt continued, “Sounds to me like the excuses of a weak-willed whiner who blames others for his own failings, but that’s besides the point. If your goal is nihility, then why do you care if I break the Treaty and kill everyone here? Wouldn’t that just bring you one step closer to your goal?” Though his grin remained fixed in place, Falling Rain’s amber eyes hardened and grew cold as he turned his gaze upon Hideo. “So fuck the Treaty. I’m no Divinity, but I don’t care either way. I’m going to kill him, and there’s nothing anyone can say or do to stop me.”

A statement spoken with the utmost conviction, and Hideo knew there was nothing else he could do but accept his fate. Such was life, trials and tribulations without end, until death came to claim him, and today, death’s name was Falling Rain.

Chapter Meme