~~~

Two Elders are dead, gone in a flash of white fire.

It is not often that Xiao Nan finds himself rattled, yet now, faced with the sudden deaths of two of their strongest, rattled seems like a rather apt word to describe him.

Xiao Nan had been shouting orders when an enormous gout of flame cut a swath of destruction from the center of the city all the way to the city walls, incinerating everything in its path. The two Elders just happened to be in the wrong place when the attack hit. That is all.

It is utterly terrifying.

The Elders of the Xiao Sect are not mere mortals. Nearly all of them have already reached the Heaven Realm, the seventh of all cultivation realms. For them, the survival of their physical bodies is not vital. Even if their heads were to be cut off, they would be able to grow them back. Even if their bodies were torn to a thousand pieces and scattered to the winds, it would be possible for them to rebuild themselves. Once one reaches the Heaven Realm, such things become simple.

However, the Elders burned by the white flame are dead.

It means the attack burned not just their bodies but their souls as well.

If the enemy can wield that sort of power, then no one in the city is safe. About the only thing Xiao Nan can take comfort in is that whoever attacked them is now locked in a different spatial realm with his uncle and Yun Peng. It is an uncommon alliance to be sure, but they should be able to deal with the threat.

Hopefully.

Xiao Nan’s eyes flicker over to the direction of Liu Jin’s house. He knows Liu Jin is alive. Otherwise, he would have felt his connection with the shade severed. That said, Xiao Nan has to wonder if maybe the disciples he sent to collect his Little Brother are perhaps dead now.

It is not a happy thought.

It is also not a thought he has time for.

Xiao Nan breathes in then out before he starts shouting orders once more. The disciples, who had been about to give in to panic, calm down when they hear his voice brimming with strength. He is Xiao Nan of the Xiao Sect, the strongest prodigy of Eastern Port City. As long as he is with them, they have nothing to fear. All the disciples wholeheartedly believe those words. Such is the strength of Xiao Nan’s reputation.

Xiao Nan wishes he could share their optimism.

“Young Master, look!”

Someone cries and points. Xiao Nan curses under his breath as hundreds of horsemen ride into the city. They had to have been hidden by some sort of technique or item. Otherwise, there is no way anyone could have missed a literal army so close to the city.

“Young Master, what shall we do?”

“Do you not already have your orders?” Xiao Nan asks. Even as he does, a few of the Elders rush to meet the incoming horde. Some stay back, likely to defend the Xiao Sect’s treasures should the worst come to pass. “The Xiao Sect will defend the city! Core and Inner Disciples, forward! Outer Disciples, protect the compound!”

Xiao Nan raises his fist. The Xiao Sect’s disciples roar and follow him into battle.

Uncle would have probably thought to use the Outer Disciples as cannon fodder, but such things are not Xiao Nan’s style.

Xiao Nan takes a deep breath and calculates the distance separating him from the horde.

Void Step.

Unlike Ground Contraction, which merely accelerates the body, Void Step is a movement technique that works by reducing the distance between user and destination to nothingness. Xiao Nan appears not in front of the horde to stop its advance. No, he appears by the city walls, right in the middle of the swarm.

All Consuming Heavenly Void.

Light and sound fade away, engulfed by all-devouring blackness. Everything within a mile of Xiao Nan is consumed and devoured. Had Xiao Nan been surrounded by his fellow disciples, using this technique would have been impossible. Here, he only has to worry about the enemy.

He feels no pity for them as their bodies are crushed and subsumed.

On the edge of his consciousness, Xiao Nan feels the shade he planted in Liu Jin’s shadow activating. The sudden awareness almost causes him to miss the incoming attack.

Earth-attuned Qi takes hold of the ground, multiple spikes made of compressed earth pierce through the blackness, trying to turn Xiao Nan into a pincushion.

Xiao Nan leaps up to dodge, and in the process of doing so, has to dispel his technique.

“Peerless Blade - First Form: Violent Crescent!”

Xiao Nan’s eyes widen as a curved, pitch-black blade is suddenly swung towards his face. In that instant, Ground Contraction grants his body new momentum. Void Step removes the distance between himself and his destination. His meridians scream in protest from using the two techniques at the same time.

It is only because Xiao Nan dares to try it that he survives.

A wave of pure Qi surges from the sword and annihilates everything in its path. It leaves behind a hole so deep it is impossible to see the bottom of it.

Had Xiao Nan taken that attack, he would have died. There is no doubt in his mind.

“Rumbling Thunder God’s Hammer!”

Xiao Nan’s jaw breaks.

A massive hammer made of pure lightning strikes the side of his face. The force breaks his bones. The current mercilessly travels through his body, tearing his nerves asunder. The strongest prodigy of Eastern Port City falls to the ground as if struck down by the Heavens themselves.

“I am impressed. I was not expecting you to survive that attack.”

Xiao Nan manages to raise his head as he reconstructs his nerves and bones. It is the sword-wielder who spoke just now, a violet-eyed man not much older than him. He has a strong jaw and a detached expression.

Before Xiao Nan can get his legs moving, the earth around him twists and binds his legs and arms. Had it been ordinary earth, someone like Xiao Nan could have easily broken it. However, this power…

It belongs to someone in the Heaven Realm.

A laugh comes from behind Xiao Nan, likely from the one using Earth-attuned Qi to hold him down.

“He’s in the Earth Realm, yet he survived your attack. How embarrassing it must be for you, Lei Yu.”

“Silence! If I wanted to kill him, I’d have used more power. It is no fun if they die right away.”

A tall youth with powerful muscles lands next to the sword user. His body crackles with gold lightning. Just like the cultivator behind him and the sword user, he is in the Heaven Realm.

Three cultivators in the Heaven Realm against him. Xiao Nan wants to laugh. A quick sensory check of the battlefield tells Xiao Nan that the Elders are all engaged in their own battles, though they are having considerably more success than him.

This is bad.

Even his fight against Feng Zhuo in the Crimson Cloud Tournament hadn’t been this dangerous. There, it was just his pride and his bones that had been at risk.

“The usual, then?” The one with the sword asks. Xiao Nan does not need to feel his Qi to know he is the biggest threat. “We take turns attacking until he dies? Shall I go next?”

“How caring of you to inform me of my fate so candidly,” Xiao Nan says while his mind races through his options.

Unfortunately, he can only think one halfway feasible alternative.

“Your name is Lei Yu,” Xiao Nan says, looking at the lightning user. “Am I correct in assuming you belong to the Lei Clan of the Thunder Blade Fortress?”

As he speaks, Xiao Nan sends what is possibly his last message to his Little Brother. It is a pity he cannot do the same for Xiao Fang. He is too far away.

“Oh?” The sword user raises an eyebrow and looks at his partner. “It seems you are famous, Lei Yu.”

“Silence!” Lei Yu snaps. He glares at Xiao Nan. “What is it to you?”

“I just wanted to confirm it,” Xiao Nan says. His body is nearly fixed, and his shades have rejoined his soul. He just needs a little more time to properly stabilize his Qi. “My ancestor fought yours, did you know? He crippled him. I was just thinking how curious it is that I’d get the chance to imitate the deeds of my honored great-grandfather!”

The earth-user behind him laughs as Lei Yu’s scowls.

“Did you hear that? This dog sure can bark. However, there is no way you can break free from my technique. Right now, you can only resign yourself to your fate!”

“Fate, huh? I guess you’re right. We all can only accept our fates.”

Xiao Nan smiles.

“My fate, it seems, is to be amazing, so amazing I even scare myself.”

Tribulation lightning strikes.

Night turns into day for an instant. The sword user and the lightning wielder manage to escape the blast radius in time. The earth user behind him is not nearly as lucky. He screams as his body is ravaged by energy.

To enter the Heaven Realm, one must endure tribulation lightning. This is no simple task, and those who are reckless about it usually die. Some cultivators spend months building up their defenses before trying to enter the Heaven Realm. The earth user may have already been in the Heaven Realm, but he was nowhere near ready for the sudden strike. He was too busy holding down Xiao Nan with his technique to ever see the lightning coming. He was too busy gloating to realize Xiao Nan’s Qi was growing as he recalled his shades.

“So this is the Heaven Realm?” Xiao Nan muses, his body crackling with power as the earth user behind him falls dead. “I do believe I like it. It has been years since my body felt this light.”

“You! You forced your own breakthrough?!” Lei Yu looks like he cannot believe what just happened. For a cultivator to force a breakthrough is almost unheard of!

“Well, I surely could not be expected to face three cultivators in the Heaven Realm on my own, could I?” Xiao Nan asks, craning his neck from side to side, doing his best to hide the tremendous pain that is wracking his body. His meridians feel like they are fire. His acupoints scream in protest as the energy within him struggles against his own body.

“As impressive as that was, you do realize you have essentially killed yourself, do you not?” The sword user asks, his voice far calmer than that of his companion. “You may have caught Ri Fubin by surprise, but someone who has just broken into the Heaven Realm and is clearly struggling to control his power is not our match.”

"I wonder about that. I do believe I might just surprise you."

Xiao Nan's grin is all teeth. His body brims with confidence he doesn't feel.

The sword user replies with a lazy wave of his sword. However, there is nothing lazy about the wave of Sword Qi triggered by the motion. It tears everything in its path to Xiao Nan's neck.

Before the attack can reach Xiao Nan, it vanishes.

"Even if it does not exist, there is value in it for it is the root of everything," Xiao Nan intones. In the past, this state has always been beyond him, but now that he is in the Heaven Realm, it is finally within his grasp. "It is through it that things are given purpose. It is through non-being that things come into existence, and so, without it, how can your attack ever reach my person?"

"Ho, I see, so it is nothingness then?" The sword user muses, his expression more interested than before. "Perhaps void? Maybe emptiness? Regardless, this should be interesting."

At an unspoken signal, the three fighters vanish, and devastation ensues.

Another battle to death starts in the streets of Eastern Port City.

It is not the first one Xiao Nan has been in.

It is just the first one he thinks he will lose.

~~~