~~~

Despite growing up in a city named after its port, Liu Jin does not have much experience with the sea. The port’s best days were a thing of the past long before Liu Jin was born. From the moment the Vermillion continent was sealed away from the rest of the world, well over a thousand years ago, trade across the sea became impossible. No longer did ships loaded with goods sail across the ocean. Trade along the coastline still happened, but it made for a poor substitute. That the Storm Dragon Empire was up north did not help matters. The place is not known for its trade and commerce.

Or so had Old Jiang told him once.

That said, even if the port had been at his best, Liu Jin doubts he would have spent much time in it. Whenever he thinks back to his childhood, it seems to him he was always busy with something. The clinic. His training. The Xiao Sect. His marriage. The tournament. Every day brought something new. Time just seemed to slip through his fingers. Rarely did Liu Jin have both the time and inclination to visit the sea.

On the rare occasions where those two happened to intersect, Liu Jin would find himself staring at the tide. Beautiful though the horizon may be, interesting as some ships could be, Liu Jin’s eyes kept going back to the tide, soothed and enchanted by the water ceaselessly rising against the land.

As Liu Jin keeps dodging the mass of bodies trying to kill him, he can’t help but think this must be what fighting the tide feels like. His opponents come from all sides. Most are in the mid-levels of the Nascent Realm, though a few are in the lower levels of the Spirit Realm.

Of course, when fighting against hundreds, few is a relative term.

They do not fight as a team should. Not at all as they fought before. There is no strategy to their movements beyond rushing at him as one giant mass. They are a sea of black coming at him as furious waves. If he kills one, dozens take its place. If he stops moving for too long, he’ll be overwhelmed. If he keeps fleeing, he’ll doubtlessly tire.

Liu Jin runs. Liu Jin jumps. Liu Jin kills.

“Do.”

“Not.”

“Leave.”

“Me!”

The shades tear their way through the forest. Dozens of small creatures flee as their homes are destroyed. The stronger Spirit Beasts attack the intruders. It provides a small reprieve, yet they never last long. There is nothing they can do against the horde.

The tide never stops. It just keeps rising, swallowing the Night Forest tree by tree.

The ocean seeks to swallow him whole.

~~~

Step.

Step.

Step.

Huang Shing cannot say he cares for feeling inadequate, yet, somewhere along the way, that has become a common state of affairs.

When exactly did it begin?

With Feng Zhi, his mind supplies. It all began with Feng Zhi. The older teen had imprinted that feeling on his body the day he took Yi Jiao from him. The shock was such that Huang Shing had left everything behind in search of power, desperately seeking to improve himself. He had found the scroll containing the Nine Dragon Slaying Palms and devoted himself to it. He had fought the pirates of the Nightmare Cove. He had beaten the One-Eyed Bear of Radiant Red Peak and survived Chen Guo of the Infinite Mountain Sect.

For a moment, Huang Shing had dared to believe he was strong.

Then, upon entering the Eternal Flame Clan, Huang Shing started remembering what being inadequate felt like once more.

Meeting Qing Jin, Lu Mei, and Bei Hong has been an eye-opening experience for him. It is not that he dislikes any of them. Far from it. If anything, Huang Shing is surprised at how much he has grown to like them over the short time they’ve known each other. In them, Huang Shing can recognize the things he lacks and can only admire them for it.

However, that is also part of the problem.

They all have things he lacks.

It hadn’t bothered him while they were in the Eternal Flame Clan. He and Brother Hong got points their way while Qing Jin and Lu Mei got points their way. That was just fine by him except… Except, he had failed Qing Jin and allowed the herbs to be stolen. Had it not been for Qing Jin’s foresight, they would have been in serious trouble.

If Huang Shing had just paid better attention to the crates, none of it would have happened. He wouldn’t have had to look for Lu Mei and Bei Hong, and they would have never angered Feng Zhi. It is his blunder that has caused them to be here.

That knowledge, that certainty, keeps digging at the back of his skull each day. Huang Shing knows he should apologize, yet with every day that passes, doing it becomes just a little bit harder. Every time Huang Shing tries, his mouth freezes, and before he even knows it, he’s drifting to safer topics. Like a coward.

Worst of all, he’s been the least useful since arriving here!

Lu Mei and Qing Jin are much smarter than him and were able to investigate on their own. Bei Hong got to fight the shades at least once. He? He hasn’t done anything! He has been useless! Nowhere was that more clear to him than during the meeting the previous night. Everyone seemed to grasp everything so quickly while he could only look on in confusion!

The only thing Huang Shing has successfully done all trip is follow Feng Zhi’s orders!

Feng Zhi!

Just thinking that name is enough to make Huang Shing’s teeth gnash against each other.

One year. Perhaps two. That’s how much of a difference there should be between them, yet Feng Zhi is on an entirely different level. It is not just his cultivation. It is the way Feng Zhi carries himself. It is how completely at ease he looks when ordering around Qing Jin, Bei Hong, and Lu Mei. Huang Shing could never think of ordering them around like that, yet Feng Zhi makes it look natural.

Even when dealing with Patriarch Wong, Feng Zhi clearly feels like the superior one. Even though Feng Zhi and Patriarch Wong are on the same level of cultivation, there is not a single doubt in Huang Shing’s mind that Feng Zhi is the older man’s superior.

Frankly, it pisses him off.

Why does Huang Shing have to keep thinking, “He knows what he is doing” every time Feng Zhi opens his mouth? Why does he have to be impressed by how in control he manages to seem at all times?

When Bei Hong came back with a wounded Qing Jin and told them what transpired in the forest, Patriarch Wong had panicked. Learning his son was involved in the attack had overwhelmed the man. However, Feng Zhi had never once hesitated. He bravely led them into the tower just as it was forming.

“We must deal with the threat right now. Once and for all.”

That is what Feng Zhi had said, not a drop of hesitation in his voice. Huang Shing would be lying if he said he hadn’t felt slightly inspired at that moment.

Now, Huang Shing is lost.

They had all broken in together. There had been stairs. Huang Shing remembers that much. Stairs that went up and down and to the sides. There had been rooms and halls, and somewhere along the way, Huang Shing had lost track of Bei Hong and Feng Zhi, leaving him to wander the tower alone.

Inadequate once more.

A large cliff opens up before him, but Huang Shing keeps walking. As soon as he steps on the air, the illusion fades away, leaving his steps to echo loudly in the big empty room. A shriek comes from his left. A big maw full of teeth opens up to swallow him. Huang Shing keeps walking, letting the monster pass through his body.

It’s all illusions.

The inside of the tower is full of mist in much denser quantities than in the Night Forest. The trick to dealing with it is to rely only on his Qi sensing and ignore his eyes and ears. It sounds simple enough, but the only reason Huang Shing is at ease doing so now is that he spent his first hour in the tower swinging at nothing.

Ten steps. Twelve steps. Thirty steps.

Huang Shing had tried clapping his hands to drive away the mist, but that was only a temporary solution. The mist always comes back. Whatever brief look of the room he managed to get always ended up being just another illusion.

All Huang Shing can do is keep moving forward and hope he is, in fact, moving forward.

It occurs to him that Feng Zhi has probably already encountered Wong Shou and is dealing with the problem while he’s lost in the mist. If it had been Qing Jin instead of him here, he’d have probably brought one of those Lovers Crimson Blossoms. Those would have prevented them from being separated so easily.

Huang Shing frowns and slaps his cheeks.

Positive thoughts! Positive thoughts!

Brooding too much is no good. Yi Jiao was always telling him that, and she was always right. Still, knowing something and acting on it are two separate things. Having to work for the guy who stole his fiancee has not really been helping his mood.

Sighing, Huang Shing takes yet another step.

And almost runs into a wall. It’s a close thing, but Huang Shing manages to bring his hands up just in time. He pats it a couple of times to confirm it is, in fact, a wall he is touching and not anything else. Once he does, a small frown appears on his face. As long as he keeps following the wall, he’s bound to find a way out of this room. He might even find stairs and from there proceed to the top of the tower.

Alternatively...

Huang Shing’s fist smashes through the wall, once then twice, to create a hole big enough for him to walk through. The shortest path between two points is a straight line, isn’t it? He remembers hearing something about that once. If he keeps breaking through the walls, he’ll make his way out. Then he’ll be able to make his way to the top of the tower from the outside without having to worry about all these illusions.

That’s smart, right?

Maybe.

Probably.

He’ll have to find out!

Huang Shing is so busy feeling proud of himself, he doesn’t feel the attack coming. Stars explode in his vision as a massive fist collides with the side of his head. The hit sends him all the way to the ceiling where his body ends up embedded for a few seconds before falling to the floor with a dull thud.

“GET OUT!”

He can’t see it. He can barely feel it. Still, every instinct screams at him to dodge. Huang Shing rolls out of the way. As he does, he feels something massive passing through.

“You dodged. Shouldn’t have done that. Shouldn’t have dodged. Shouldn’t have seen! Shouldn’t have seen!!!”

An invisible assailant with Wong Shou’s voice.

Since Bei Hong had been following Qing Jin and Wong Shou from afar, his report had been spotty at best. Still, he had mentioned there had been something like this. Regardless, whatever Huang Shing is facing right now is clearly big, strong, and invisible.

It is nothing he isn’t used to.

“Just like the other! Just like the other! Just like the other! Stop. Looking!”

His steps are like earthquakes. His roar is a storm. The power of this thing is easily in the Spirit Realm. Huang Shing may barely sense it, but his instincts scream the truth, and he had not gotten this far by ignoring them.

Huang Shing and his instinct are very cozy with each other.

If he were Feng Zhi, he’d probably defeat this thing in one blow. If he were Qing Jin or Lu Mei, he’d easily dodge it and let it tire itself out. If it were Bei Hong here, he’d take the hits without a scratch.

He isn’t them.

He is Huang Shing. He doesn’t run or hide. He can only stand his ground and faces the giant’s charge head-on.

[Fourth Dragon Slaying Palm - Blooming Lotus]

Green Qi coils around his arms and legs as he drives his palm forward. As the beast comes at him, Huang Shing strikes with all his might. His palm glows a brilliant emerald, then crimson as he drives it into the giant’s body. The Qi around it blooms like the petals of a lotus.

The giant is blown back all the way to the other side of the room.

He gets up. Huang Shing senses it. The sense of threat is still in the air.

This fight is just beginning.

“I have no idea who or what you are!” Huang Shing’s fist strikes his palm. “But I’ve been feeling pretty down lately, so I’m going to thrash you most thoroughly!”

~~~