Yuan Shu stumbled on the pavement.

Orange colored blood spilled out of his lips and dripped to the snow piles on the ground. Since the barrier broke around a few minutes ago, the dark clouds awaiting their chance rained whatever they held inside. Snowflakes accumulated enough to create piles of snow throughout the vacant streets. The small hills of snow hid the small cracks and crevices spreading throughout the path.

His hands subconsciously clutched the side of his stomach and a nauseating feeling rose from his belly. Unable to hold in, another mouthful of orange blood escaped from his lips. They splattered to the blank white snow under his painted boots. Damn, this hurts too much. It wasn’t a simple, easy process to get your cultivation dissipated. The pain alone was something he wouldn't be able to bear was it not for the training at the God Legion. The consequent damage to his meridians, which were the sole vessels large enough to let his cultivation seep through, also increased the amount he had to suffer.

I have to find a safe place to rest, away from the eyes and senses of the forsakens and monsters alike.

The pain would go on for much longer than he first assumed at first, he had to be cautious. And from what his intuition told, he would be too weak to even use his Qi Skin after the process finished. Perhaps he would need to rest more after that. So, he moved. He clenched his fist, raised it in the air, and with a whip of air struck on his chest.

‘’Bluegh!-’’ A mouthful of blood escaped from his mouth and the pain somewhat lightened. Now, where...I found it.

He sensed a goliath hiding in ambush from a few dozens of meters afar. The traces it left were too obvious to hide, let alone the murderous aura around it. But he chose to feign ignorance and walked towards where the beast lay in darkness. Yuan Shu trusted his knowledge on these filthy monsters.

The goliaths were monsters who loathed chewing on the living prey. They liked to swallow their hunt whole and digest slowly. Most of the time, the ones consumed by them could live around two or three days inside the belly. Unless, of course, something abnormal happened to the monster.

Just a few hours is enough, then I can make my escape. Yuan Shu took three more steps and came before a bloodied alley’s entrance.

‘’HAAH!’’ A howl rang out and Yuan Shu widened his eyes to look shocked. He rotated to the side in a hurry and sent a fist to the large shadow looming over him, but what he received was instead a gaping mouth thrice his size. His punch swung through the air inside the goliath’s mouth. The fangs of the monster appeared from the ground below and descended from above, then closed.

He was inside the mouth of the beast now. He stomped on the tongue and rushed towards the mouth to escape. All to make the goliath aware of his anxiousness, but the agile flesh moved too quick for him to react. The tongue wrapped around his leg and hurled him back towards the pharynx of the goliath.

He fell into the dark tunnels of flesh and soon, hit some sort of lock before diving inside the little pond of acid. Waves rose from the shock and it took a second for Yuan Shu to rise. He stuck his head out of the acid pond, took a deep breath, exhaled, and collapsed right away. The water level wasn’t too high, he could sit inside the pool with his chest above the liquid.

The belly acid of a goliath wasn’t corroding. Instead, it had a property of instilling a sense of exhaustion to the ones who inhaled or consumed it. There was also the side effect of it, which caused numbness and lessening the pain. And he needed that right now.

He grasped a handful of the acid and swallowed. It tasted sour and his throat reddened, he felt like a lemon on fire rolled down his neck. But the feeling soon ceased and he was left with a slight ache from his meridians.

Oh, someone is here?

Yuan Shu saw a man floating in the pond, face-down, and riddled with wounds over his body. He leaned forward and grasped the man from his foot, then pulled towards himself. The man came up beside him and Yuan Shu flipped him over to see his face.

It is that boy? By the light, did I have some karma with him from my past life?

He looked at the terrified face of the young man and laughed. He must have fainted from fear. He gave a small push with his foot and sent the body floating over to the other side. He didn’t want to cramp the little space around him as well.

Well, I can help him get out of here once I’m rested. Yuan Shu stretched his limbs and rested his head on the mushy flesh wall. But until then, I will take a small nap.

Soon enough, the goliath heard some grumbling noises from its belly. It must haven’t eaten enough to satisfy its hunger, it thought, then proceeded to hide in the shadows again.

*********

Gaobun swapped places with another one of his avatars.

This time, he didn’t take his time in the tunnel. With the greatest speed he could muster, his feet shot up into the air and he flew to the other end in a second. He passed by the avatar and his eyes pierced through the curtain of light at the other side.

What greeted him was a sharp, golden tip beside his face.

A blazing inferno shot through his feet and his body twisted in mid-air. The spear tip missed his cheek by a millimeter, the blinding head of the spear passed right before his eyes. Gaobun swirled his leg towards the side of the forsaken to burn his flesh with the inferno.

Unfortunately, the other side commanded both power and speed vaster than his. And experience greater than most on the battlefield. So a simple rotation of his spear proved enough to lock Gaobun’s leg between his thigh and the shaft of the spear.

Gaobun didn’t hesitate to listen to his screaming instincts and swapped places with another avatar. He appeared a few hundred meters away from the forsaken and his avatar bore the brunt of the spear sweep. The blazing ball of flames exploded into thousands of embers and floated to the ground. The forsaken looked at the remnants of the avatar. His eyes glinted and a small grin appeared on his face, then turned to gaze at him.

‘’Why are you so angry, little whelp?’’ He didn’t show any notion of preparing for a move. Gaobun didn’t interfere with his words. The same instant, except the remaining few dozen avatars, he commanded hundreds of them to scatter. All towards the outside of the city. He wanted to gain as much time as possible. No matter how much he wanted to scorch the man in front of him until he ran out of cells to regenerate, he knew he couldn't do it.

‘’Did I do something wrong?’’ Forsaken asked.

‘’I have no obligation to respond, impudent dog.’’ Gaobun gritted his teeth. ‘’People of Cindersnow won’t stoop so low to speak with the likes of you.’’

‘’People Of Cindersnow? Hahaha! Your pride is laudable.’’ Forsaken laughed. ‘’So, slave of the Cindersnow, would you like to reconsider your decision? All I wish is to progress our relationship before that punk arrives.’’

‘’Relationship? Punk?’’ Gaobun muttered. ‘’What are you talking about?’’

‘’That cultivator, whose aura blots the sky and disperses clouds. Isn’t he also a slave like you? The punk escaped before I realized but he surely will come back.’’ He smiled. ‘’After all, I never saw a Cindersnow forsake the other for centuries.’’

Gaobun kept silent and looked at the forsaken. At their altitude, the wind blew harsher and colder than most could encounter in these lands. Both of their clothes rustled before the force of the blades and gusts of wind. The screams and bellows below their feet seemed somewhat lost under its influence. For a moment, Gaobun felt the wind carry his feet rather than the Qi. He sniffed, from the corner of his eye he noticed the forsaken untying the knot on his hair. Gaobun tilted his head to the left.

He saw the whirlwinds and storms gathering between the palms of a man facing two munchurs. His shriveled robes and bloodied sleeves gave a sense of security to the ones watching. As if his back screamed I am here, right now, to fulfill my duty! loud in his ears. Only, he wasn’t sure what was there to protect. The havoc and chaos, still, ensued. Even without intervention from the Russell, people continued to lose their lives. But that wondrous feeling, it warmed one’s heart. He was one who looked like a leader, one who had the shoulders to carry the burden of a thousand together.

He looked, for the first time in his eyes, not like a crazy asshole. But as someone capable of thinking, and valuing, what was right, what was wrong, and what was to be protected. He looked like a man willing to rather challenge alone than to fight together. One who feared the consequences to the ones beside him.

‘’Admiring, are you?’’ Forsaken asked at that time. Gaobun averted his eyes to him, at his spread out long hair and shining armor. At his right arm that clenched the ropes of Ubel’s necklace, at his feet ready to move with a deadly attack, and at his eyes. Dulled, blank, filled with amusement. His eyes searched for something inside Gaobun’s pair of pupils. Perhaps fear, perhaps something more positive.

‘’I said so. Your pride is laudable. You people, you immortals’ sense of honor. I mean it, in the most serious way I can say.’’ Forsaken closed his eyes and took a deep breath. ‘’But-’’ He sighed. ‘’That is it. Pride and honor, that is all there is to your kind.’’

‘’Pride?’’ Gaobun recounted the word. ‘’What we have is not pride...forsaken.’’ He refused to insult the man further. ‘’We don’t need something like pride. It muddles the mind, blinds the perception. It makes people ambitious, greedy. It causes death, or accident, as a man full of pride always overlooks the most simple things.’’

‘’Is that so?’’ Forsaken lowered his head for a moment. His hand supported his chin and Gaobun continued.

‘’My kind, my people are not limited to the pride and honor of humans. We...came over those two a long time ago. We destroyed greed and malice, wiped out corruption, punished the rebel and the evil. Cindersnow helped the mortals and immortals alike to stand up from the hole they sat in, the hole you call pride.’’

‘’But you are no man, aren’t you?’’ Forsaken looked at Gaobun. His index finger curled up like a hook, he swung it towards him. ‘’You are at most forty, or fifty. You are a child, you are no man in the eyes of the elders. You haven’t lived in that malice, that corruption. You never saw someone starve or get slaughtered for no reason.’’

‘’I haven’t lived in the God’s Nation,’’ Gaobun admitted. ‘’I didn’t see with my own eyes, but I read. I listened, I explored. But you, how does a forsaken know about God’s Nation?’’

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‘’It is like how we know about the Cindersnow.’’ Forsaken flashed a bitter smile, it disappeared in the same instant. Gaobun’s eyes widened at the sight. ‘’The God’s Nation was just another torturer to our people, among the many on the list.’’

Torturer...

‘’You said-’’ Forsaken continued at that time, Gaobun raised his head to meet with his eyes. ‘’Your people is not limited to the pride and honor of humans?’’

‘’Mortals.’’ Gaobun corrected himself. ‘’Mortals are still blind.’’

‘’Are you not a mortal yourself, cultivator?’’ Forsaken asked. ‘’You, your parents, their following generation. They all were bred from the bloodline of a normal human, a mortal, and were mortals at the first steps of their lives.’’

‘’...so?’’

‘’Why do you feel the need to differentiate yourself from the mortals?’’

Gaobun had no immediate words to answer. He started to think about it. For first, mortals were weak. They lacked the power to protect themselves, or their offspring from the dangers of the wild. Normal humans had no way to survive in this world. So, the immortals, people acting as guardians of the mortals, were superior in that regard. They had the power to make decisions.

Second, mortals were blind. They had greed and envy and jealousy in their hearts. Even if successful, they were never satisfied. They looked for a higher peak and despised them for working more than them, for being better than them. They were blind because of their emotions. They could not think without bias and with peace. They weren’t as patient as the immortals were. They excluded those different or weak, immortals embraced them all. So, they, who had the potential to do everything yet lacked the drive and unity to do it, were inferior in that regard.

Third, they feared death. They were so interlaced with the material wealth and relationships that their minds couldn’t acknowledge the end. But...Gaobun stopped thinking. What was he doing a moment ago? He tried, but no excuse came on this matter. He, just like a mortal, a few minutes ago, refused to accept the death.

Am I...not different?

‘’No answer? You don’t need to- if you manage to find your way out of the thinking of a slave, then good for you.’’

‘’Perhaps, one day, you will realize what they did. Then, you could join your kinsmen at our side.’’

‘’He is coming,’’ Gaobun stopped the forsaken from talking further. He blinked twice, clenched his fist, and looked at the forsaken again. He had tied up his loose hair some time ago, he didn’t realize when.

‘’I know, whelp.’’ Forsaken smiled. ‘’Think about that question a lot, you can be a nice addition to ou-.’’

‘’Give me the necklace.’’ Gaobun interrupted mid-way through. ‘’Give me the necklace and I will join you now.’’

‘’And I believe that with my whole heart, brat.’’ Forsaken brandished his spear and put the necklace inside a spatial pouch tied to his armor. ‘’So, what are you going to do? Want to see the spectacle? You will die in the midst if you don’t back away.’’

‘’No, I don’t think I will. Stop caring about me.’’ Gaobun said. ‘’Care for yourself, pitiful soul.’’

‘’I will, brat.'' forsaken grinned.

*********

‘’I have been waiting for you, scum!’’ Forsaken shouted out loud towards the north. Away from the city and the mountains, it reached their ears. City’s foundations shook from the echoes of his voice. People and monsters alike stumbled on their two feet. The harpies and the wood spirits in the air lost their balance for a second. Some immortals found this as a chance to shoot them down with arrows and javelins.

Archura’s eyes flashed with hatred and she dived towards the group of immortals that struck her children. Russel, from the other side, struggled to keep two munchurs at bay right outside the walls. City lord laid in a pool made of his blood, unconscious. Some forsakens grasped the opportunity and mowed down any threatening immortals among their ranks to pave the way.

And Ubel, he laid with no fluctuations from his cultivation base and mind. Sleeping, crippled.

Quan closed his third eye. The colors of the world returned, the clouds to grey and the land to reddened snow. He narrowed his eyes and the Emperor Shuangxing cast him a nonchalant gaze.

‘’Is it this weakling that made you a slave of me? Pitiful.’’

Quan didn’t respond. Instead, he pointed towards the Mountain Of Emperors with his index finger. Shuangxing’s eyes darted around the mountain until his eyes widened.

‘’I see! Your worries are well-founded. I also had some troubles with that woman before.’’ He smiled. ‘’But the Lady Of The Passage is no longer in her prime. She won’t dare to trouble us.’’

‘’So, dear Quan. Would you like to vent that deep hatred inside your heart?’’ Shuangxing snuck a peek at Quan’s shaking hands and reddened eyes. ‘’Anger is a poison for someone of your age, after all.’’

‘’I beseech you, Your Majesty.’’ Quan clasped his fist, bowed, and rose.

‘’I am more than happy to oblige, my slave.’’ A mischievous smile crept on his face.

*********

‘’Who are you?’’ A voice asked at that moment, the owner approached them. Only a few dozen meters between them, the duo met the forsaken. ‘’Or let me correct myself.’’ He coughed, ‘’Which one of you is the deserter?’’ His eyes locked on Quan.

Silence ensued. No one uttered a word, nor any motion occurred. Forsaken gazed into Quan. Quan looked down at his trembling hand. Shuangxing savored the sight of the forsaken.

Then everything happened at once.

Quan’s hands flashed with seals and everything went dark. From above, a colossal, dark layer of stone and marble appeared. Everyone in the city submerged into darkness. The summoned thing covered every inch of the sky and started to fall on them. Forsaken’s eyes widened and his spear moved, but the duo already left their positions. Then a booming voice echoed in the air.

‘’Om!’’ The first word shook the air.

‘’Ah!’’ The second word sent chills through forsaken’s body. He flew upwards, picked up speed, and pointed his spear tip to the falling down mass of darkness. I won't get crushed.

‘’Hum!’’ The third word sounded. Forsaken snuck a peek at his surroundings but nothing appeared. His senses, however, told him that he would die right now.

‘’HAAH!’’ He shouted and the sacred body art of his hall, Blood Of Sovereign, sprang from his pores. A blood-red aura covered every corner of his body, spread to his spear, and solidified around its shaft and the tip. The dense amount of misty aura made the spear hidden from the eye as if he held just a condensed blood cloud.

‘’Begone!’’ His spear flashed with a brilliant light. He grabbed hold of the shaft with both hands, his eyes reddened. Vessels popped out left and right on his body and his skin swelled up.

He looked up. The thing was almost upon him now. With his senses, he knew the thing was at least four or five times bigger than Yadratafos. Something of that weight could crush him to a paste, a state that even he couldn't recover from.

So he would pave the way for himself.

His hands moved, the spear blinked out of existence.

He heard a small grunt from the space around him, forsaken’s eyes narrowed.

A tear in the sky appeared, followed by a blood-red trail of light behind it.

Then the spear appeared right before the surface of the darkening stone and marble. Amidst the rift in the sky and the rubble, it pierced through with a small explosion.

Forsaken clenched both of his hands and the blood-red aura around him shot out like tentacles to the spear. The dozens of slimy auras swirled and shriveled in the air and grasped the spear from the shaft.

Then the aura around the spear started to inflate. From centimeters, it turned into hundreds of meters thick and a thousand-meter long aura. His muscles bulged again and with all his power, he swept the spear upwards with the tentacles.

A sound like a shrill scream pierced through everyone’s ears below the combatants’ feet. The red aura exploded into a mist of blood. Shockwaves shattered the sound barrier and rubble, a huge opening appeared between the thing covering the skies.

‘’Ha!’’ Forsaken picked up speed and shot towards the sky. Through the opening, he flew and grasped his spear, then continued to rush upwards.

Once he escaped from the darkness under, his eyes widened. He looked at the thing that was falling on him a moment before, the thing he cut through.

It was an entire city. A city filled with deserted skyscrapers and vacant manors, with castles and tower houses covering every inch. Walls adorned with siege weapons, streets filled with deserted stalls, alleys full of empty wine bottles. And it was a city he knew very well, a city where he made his name for the first time.

‘’Kryostria!? Maniac! You were the bastard who uprooted the whole city!?’’ Forsaken’s eyes darted around as he shouted. He found no one. But his senses tingled again, a sense of doom crept from behind.

He turned around, his eyes widened yet again.

‘’No-How...how are you two here in the same place?’’ The moment he laid eyes on the terrifying manifestation, his vision blurred. His mind swam through the memories of the past, a scene of slaughter embed into his soul came to surface.

‘’Golden Statue Of Sovereign, Massacrer Of A Hundred Sects.’’ He mumbled, frozen.

‘’How funny. You little ones remember my name?’’ Shuangxing flashed a creepy smile, the short mustache of his gave him a sense of urgency. His mouth moved as the forsaken stood at his place, frozen from shock.

‘’Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā, Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā!-’’ He started to chant, hymns of deities covered him like a blessed being. From his back, a golden statue with twelve hands and four heads rose, sitting cross-legged on a blue lotus. On each side was an expression, and each face had one gold one white eye: Sun and the Moon.

‘’No-’’ Forsaken regained his clarity as he saw the twelve hands moving at the same time. He shot towards Shuangxing, his spear ready to pierce the heart, but he couldn’t.

All twelve hands of the golden statue moved at the same time. They grasped the corners and the foundations of the city and, with a push, flipped them over. The city warped upon itself, buildings and the walls started to collapse. The forsaken screamed in anger as he picked up more speed and the corners came much closer, ready to embrace him.

Yet, Quan didn't let go of the forsaken. He warped above him, threads of space and void connected to his back. With a push from his right hand, the threads pulled the man towards him. The forsaken couldn’t react in time and Quan’s palm struck right between the brows of the forsaken. The threads severed, they both spurted blood, and flew back from the shock.

‘’Damne-’’ Forsaken's voice trailed off. The city closed on him like two metal plates stuck together. The palms of the golden statue continued to crush the forsaken and Quan backed off. He wiped the traces of blood from the corner of his mouth and glanced at the emperor.

‘’Get ready.’’ He gave a warning, then swept his arm forward. From his palm, a huge white cauldron submerged. It grew larger and larger until it was as big as the Kryostria itself, then swallowed the city inside. Quan motioned with his hand, the emperor followed and they both flew inside the cauldron.

Behind them, a lid with the carving of the word Space appeared and sealed the cauldron shut.

Gaobun looked at the flying cauldron in the air for a moment, then descended next to Russel.

*********

‘’Om Bhur Bhuvaḥ Swaḥ. Tat-savitur Vareñyam. Bhargo Devasya Dhīmahi, Dhiyo Yonaḥ Prachodayāt!’’ The golden statue behind the emperor Shuangxing started to glow brighter. In the six right hands, upon each hand’s palm, a miniature Sun appeared. They sent waves of heat throughout the Space Furnace’s insides. The scorching flames of the stars burned the edges of the clump of stone and marble once they called Kryostria.

‘’Changxi, bless your son and give me power, oh the mother of the moons!’’ Six moons appeared in the left six hands, each radiating a frigid cold enough to freeze a whole city. The twelve hands moved in unison, they rose, then fell with a giant shockwave.

Quan pulled the threads of space around the city and bundled them together like sewing silk. The forsaken battered around to escape, to free himself, but he couldn't.

Quan sighed and Shuangxing grinned.

Six moons and six suns all struck the Kryostria at the same time.

Each star exploded into flames and chilling blizzards, storms of fire and snow covered the space of the Space furnace. The city of Kryostria melted and froze, again and again, under the attacks of the two opposite forces. Over time, the clump eroded until it turned into a speck of dust.

As both of them stopped, amidst the remnant dust and rubble something caught Shuangxing's eye. It was a simple pendant with two red ropes tied to a stone. There was something carved on it, but he couldn't read what it wrote.

Shuangxing reached out with one of the golden statue’s hands to grasp the necklace in pure curiousity but Quan acted faster. He flashed, caught it from the ropes, opened his spatial ring, and tucked the pendant into the storage.

Emperor narrowed his eyes for a moment. Quan looked at him with calm eyes and willed the furnace to open. The lid disappeared and the grey clouds of the Yadratafos became visible again.

‘’Your majesty, let me lead the way.’’ He said and left without looking back.

Shuangxing gazed at Quan’s disappearing back, then smiled.

I will accept this one.