~~~

Liu Jin’s Qi roars and thunders and soars. He pushes and pulls, yet no matter how many hours pass, the result will not change.

He cannot pull out the jeweled sword.

“What am I missing?”

Liu Jin floats upside down in the contaminated waters as he ponders that question, one hand on his chin and the other on his elbow. His legs kick at the water every now and then to help him keep his balance.

“Is it just a matter of strength, or is there something more to it?”

The sea offers no answers to him, not that Liu Jin expected it to. He turns to the side.

“Do you perhaps know the answer?”

The giant snake that brought him here has its body laid out in a circle around him, one large enough for over a thousand people standing side by side to fit inside. There is no doubt in Liu Jin’s mind that it and all the other snakes are somehow related to Nine-Headed Snake God and the existence of this weapon buried deep within his soul. It is from the sword that the thick miasma all around him is born, and from the miasma, the snakes are born.

Alas, the giant creature has no answers for him. It does its closest equivalent to a shrug, a gesture Liu Jin more feels than sees. A hum leaves Liu Jin’s mouth.

The snakes, the poison, the sword.

Nine-Headed Snake God has left quite a mark on him, one beyond the scope of his Inheritance, yet not one that evokes any sense of urgency. After all, the sword has been inside him all this time, and Nine-Headed Snake did mean for him to deliver this gift. A dead man would make a poor messenger.

Certainly, Liu Jin will need to keep a close eye on the effects the sword has on his soul, but there is no need to panic over it.

He’ll figure out how to remove it in due time.

In the meantime...

“Have you seen a book somewhere around here?” He asks the snake, holding his hands apart, somehow trusting the snake will be able to see them. “It is about this big.”

Old Jiang said he left the book in the same place Nine-Headed Snake God left his gift, but there is no sign of it in this area. Liu Jin thought they’d be close to each other, but it seems his thinking was too literal. The soul is vast, far more so than Liu Jin had imagined. There is no end to the places where it could be hidden.

Unfortunately, the giant snake just blinks its big, blue eyes at him and tilts its head in confusion.

“Can you take me to another area?” Liu Jin asks instead. “Is there another place in this sea that looks important?”

The snake’s eyes light up, glowing through the miasma. Its massive body starts moving, kicking up multiple tons of sand and generating a current that lifts up Liu Jin’s body in the process. Like before, the snake catches Liu Jin on the back of its head. Its long, sinuous form moves through the ocean at unimaginable speeds, turning Liu Jin’s surroundings into a blur of purple.

Seconds pass. Minutes pass. Hours pass. Purple becomes blue once more, yet the snake does not stop. Liu Jin wonders, not for the first time, whether the passage of time within his soul is the same as the one outside. He can still vaguely sense his body, but that’s as far as his sense of the outside world goes.

Oh, well.

Someone will seek him once he uses up his allotted time.

Maybe.

For now, it is okay to enjoy the ride through his soul.

~~~~

Eastern Port City burns at the bottom of the sea.

Columns of smoke rise higher and higher into the ocean. The city walls lie broken, the commercial district ransacked, the stadium devastated.

Why?

Liu Jin hops off the giant snake. He swims through the ruined walls and steps into the outer districts. Burning houses illuminate the broken down roads, somehow not collapsing despite the fierce flames.

Why?

Eastern Port City was his home. For the first years of his life, it was all Liu Jin knew. It makes sense for it to have a place within his soul.

But why is it like this?

The destruction of Eastern Port City made an impact on him. Liu Jin is not foolish enough to deny that. It shaped his goals and even caused his body and soul to fall out of alignment for a while. However, Liu Jin thought he had mostly recovered from that. It is not as if his soul had given him any trouble lately. The battle against Wong Shou had seemed like proof he was operating at full capacity.

Looking at the rising flames casts doubt into that analysis.

A support beam falls down. By the time Liu Jin turns to look at it, another one has taken its place. The house still burns, trapped in an eternal loop, just like the rest of the city. Burning and burning without end. Never consumed. Never free.

How morbid of him.

Liu Jin forces himself to take his eyes away from the flames. He is not here to reminisce or wallow in negativity. Old Jiang left his notes somewhere inside him. If they are in this copy of Eastern Port City, there is one place he must check before all others.

The clinic.

Over a year has passed, yet Liu Jin still knows the way by heart. Even though the city is on fire, he has no problem recognizing the streets.

Even if they feel somehow smaller now.

Were the roads always this narrow?

Surely not.

Right?

The clinic is not that far from the city walls. For someone like Liu Jin, getting there should only take seconds at best. However, his body refuses to hurry or even use moderate speed. With every step he takes, there is something new to see, another image to imprint into his mind, redundant though the action may be. Eastern Port City already burns in his soul. What need is there to imprint it further?

His mind knows this. His body refuses to listen to it.

Still, he eventually reaches his destination.

The clinic is exactly as he last saw it: on fire and with the roof caved in from one of Murong Bang’s fireballs. The small two-story house where he grew up burns like the rest of the city.

Liu Jin steps in.

He pushes a fallen support beam out of the way. The fire licks at his skin but does not hurt him.

It can not.

It will not.

Not anymore.

The inside is a mess, and Liu Jin messes it up further in his search. The broken furniture is turned upside down, the medicine cabinets are emptied out, the rubble pushed aside. Dirt and ashes stain Liu Jin’s hands and clothes, yet his goal eludes him.

The book is not here.

The book is not in his home.

For one dreadful moment, Liu Jin fears the book may have already burned. The thought does not last long. His fears and his anger, no matter how potent, cannot possibly touch something Old Jiang left behind.

Old Jiang must have left the book somewhere else, but where? Poison Fang Canyon? Perhaps, but the closest thing to Poison Fang Canyon Liu Jin has seen so far would have to be the place where Nine-Headed Snake God’s blade is buried. The book is definitely not there.

It must be hidden in another part of the city, but where exactly would Old Jiang have placed it?

Perhaps…

Horses gallop in the distance, breaking Liu Jin out of his thoughts and drawing him out of the house. A group of horsemen make their way through the streets, hollering and waving their swords and spears, cutting down everything in their path. They have no faces, for they are shadows with red eyes wearing armor as black as midnight.

Black like the storm.

Liu Jin’s nails dig into his palms hard enough to draw blood. It flows to his knuckles and into the ocean, spreading and thinning into a myriad of strands that lose their color as they flow further away from him. His eyes narrow into slits, and his face twists into something ugly and frightening. White poisonous Qi emanates from his body, making the water around him boil and bubble.

These things shouldn’t be here.

These do not deserve to be here.

Liu Jin is walking towards the riders before he knows it, his body gaining speed with every step. As if drawn by his anger, the riders speed up as well, their weapons whistling through the air. Neither side slows down. Neither side hesitates. They are starving beasts who have not seen prey for many moons. Now, they bare their fangs and howl.

Liu Jin lunges.

The poison emanating from his body rots the horse before he even makes contact with it. The rider’s body is not so easily overcome.

[White Venom Fist]

Liu Jin’s hand tears through the soldier’s armor and throat. With the same motion, he swivels to the right, his body twisting like a snake as he launches himself at the next rider.

A spear is thrust to his face. Liu Jin reaches out and touches it. His poisonous Qi rushes up the weapon, disintegrating it as it goes along and flowing into the rider’s body. The soldier does not scream as his body starts falling apart. Neither does the next one as Liu Jin buries his hand deep into his chest, melting his way through the armor. They are not capable of it. These things are most likely nothing but a representation of something within his soul.

Anger. Despair. Resentfulness.

It doesn’t matter. Either way, these things are not alive.

Does Liu Jin tear into their bodies so savagely because of it? Or does it happen in spite of it?

The wisps of white Poison Qi around Liu Jin grow and take the shape of red-eyed snakes. They hiss and glare at the riders, and soon enough, they are biting and swallowing them as well. Reaching out to grab and kill that which lies beyond Liu Jin’s reach.

More riders come, spreading throughout the streets like a swarm of locusts.

Liu Jin doesn’t hide. Liu Jin doesn’t try to avoid them or even stop to think of a clever plan. His thoughts are no more complex than those of a man who finds an insect in his house and stomps on it out of disgust.

This is no different.

This is his home.

These things have no place here.

White poisonous Qi flows through Liu Jin’s body as he throws himself into the fray. The storm of swords and spears sings for his blood, but Liu Jin is the rock upon which it breaks. The spears melt. The swords shatter. The armors fall apart and become nothing but scrap.

The snakes devour.

Liu Jin tears his way through the Outer District. His body blazes with Qi that shines even brighter than the flames surrounding him. He breaks into the commercial district and keeps fighting still.

He keeps fighting all the way to the Xiao Sect’s compound.

All the way to that place.

“Master, this sort of gesture is not like you.”

A quaint little house in the inner zone of the Xiao Sect’s compound where usually only Core Disciples are allowed to enter. Despite the destruction everywhere else in the city, this area remains untouched. The floors are intact, the gardens are green, the flowers blooming.

How much time did he spend here?

Stepping into the cottage drains his wrath away and leaves him dizzy. No matter where he turns to, he can only see a new memory. Eating together with Xiao Shuang. Pouring over Doctor Wu’s notes on his desk. Su An constantly telling him not to overwork himself. There is only one corner he does not turn to.

What does it mean that Old Jiang left the notebook here?

Liu Jin picks it up from his desk and gently pats it even though there is no dust in it. This whole area has been left untouched by time.

Did Old Jiang imagine he would have moved in here by now? That he would have risen within the Xiao Sect?

No. That doesn’t quite sound like him.

Liu Jin frowns. Try as he might. His Master’s motives elude him.

No matter. He has the book now.

Liu Jin pulls out a chair and makes himself comfortable.

He has a lot of reading to do.

~~~