If you so desire peace, then you must first prepare for war.

This seemingly inimical maxim was one Bai Qi lived by and the source of his title as the Lord of Martial Peace, but Lord though he might be, his eyes had long since been fixed on loftier heights. Not out of any desire for personal power, wealth, or any other materialistic aspirations, for he was a man of humble origins and simple needs. If not for the sake of appearances, he would have no qualms cladding himself in clothes of rough hemp or homespun fibres, nor did he care for the ostentatious trappings and gaudy jewellery seemingly expected of the ‘nobility’. What use were sparkling gems and precious metals without food and water to fill your belly and quench your thirst? None whatsoever, and as a man who went hungry and thirsty more often than not in his formative years, he found the wasteful extravagance of the ruling class both outrageous and reprehensible. Millions of men and women of the West went without while a select few indulged in food, drink, and flesh, an imbalance between the classes which perpetuated a cycle of bloody uprisings within the province which did little to nothing to shake the status quo.

A hard learned lesson that took years of strife and struggle for Bai Qi to wholly understand. When he first set out on his Path, he spent the better part of two decades reasoning with his superiors and showing them the errors of their ways, but they cared not for the suffering of commoners. They could not understand that his motives were not based solely in compassion or empathy, but cold, hard logic. It was far more cost efficient to see that the people of the West were fed, watered, and kept in check rather than allowing cities and districts to spiral out of control as commoners starved and bandits ran rampant. Then again, what did the nobles care of cost efficiency? Such expenses were paid for by taxes, taxes which the nobles paid a surprisingly small share given their vast hordes of wealth. This news came as something of a surprise to a younger Bai Qi, for in his eyes, those who profited most should bear the largest share of the costs, yet it was more ‘profitable’ to tax a thousand commoners a single copper than to try and eke out ten gold from a single nobleman, for the wealthy were both able and willing to spend coin on all manner of methods to avoid paying their fair share. The trail of fraud and corruption started from the smallest merchants and led all the way to the Marshal himself, a greedy cretin of a man who profited from the suffering of his fellow countrymen by embezzling funds earmarked for assisting those in need, and it sickened Bai Qi to see it in action.

All of which came to light during his rise as the Lord of Martial Peace, but it all started in his home city of Yique when he was but a young Captain of humble origin and a rising dragon of note. Having only recently returned from patrol and off-duty for another week, he’d been deep in his cups with his cherished comrades and compatriots when word of the rebellion arrived, and to this day, he still remembered how surreal that moment had been. They went from discussing wine and women to hearing how the local Magistrate just seized two-dozen Imperial caravans filled with foodstuff and rations in preparation of a long and lengthy siege, one in which Bai Qi and his comrades would be forced to participate, one way or another. There were only two options before them; throw in with the rebels and join them in defending the city walls, or return home to their families and hope to find some way to get them safely beyond the gates, for every Martial Warrior inside the city would be deemed a rebel unless they took up arms against the Magistrate. Young and full of bluster and bravado, Bai Qi had seen this as a trial from the Heavens themselves, a tribulation that would either see him buried beneath the sands or rise up as a storied hero of the Empire beloved by all.

And so, being the fool that he was, Bai Qi chose a third option, and worse, convinced his friends to go along with him in his foolhardy plan to infiltrate the palace, assassinate the Magistrate and break the backbone of the rebellion before it could even begin. Looking back on it now with a lifetime of military experience behind him, he dared not claim success so much as accept that his enemies failed every step along the way. So much could and should have gone wrong on his way to the palace, and to this day, he still had no earthly idea how he and his comrades even made it past the walls unseen. Were he to do it all over again, he would have taken the time to gather more like-minded compatriots before ambushing a patrol of City Guards, as he could have stolen their armour and waltzed right into the palace unchallenged instead of slinking in through the sewer tunnels underneath. He would also have made plans for a clean retreat or extraction, but in reality, he’d gone in wholeheartedly believing there was no coming out of this conflict alive, and thus acted accordingly. The stories called him brave, but it was liquid courage, rash impetus, and the cold sacrifice of friends and comrades which saw him through to victory, and the fact that the rebels didn’t slaughter him where he stood when he hoisted the Magistrate’s head from a balcony for all to see spoke volumes to the irrationality of the Enemy.

No, the Enemy no more, for Bai Qi fought side by side with the Defiled now and would succeed or fail alongside the Uniter.

Despite turning rebel and traitor, he still found it strange to not hate the Defiled with all his heart. They took everything from him, this he wholeheartedly believed until he recently uncovered the true secret of the Dao. There was no sense hating the Defiled any more, for there was no right or wrong, good or evil, Mother or Father, merely a Yin and a Yang to the Energies of the Heavens. Rather than positive and negative, light and darkness, or any other such nonsense based in morality, he saw it as one or the other, because there was no ‘correct’ option, only a requisite Balance to maintain between two sides. The tribal Defiled savages indulged in too much of one and denied too much of the other, while the Martial Warriors of the outer provinces did the same in reverse. Ignorance on both sides, all thanks to the misinformation of the True Enemy of humanity, the Emperor and his traitorous clansmen. Vultures and scavengers the lot of them, picking away at the still-living flesh of the outer provinces the same way the Western Marshal exploited the people of his own province. To make matters worse, the Imperial Clan kept the outer provinces weak and unaware by killing or stealing away the best of the bunch, those who touched upon those same secrets of Heaven like Solitary Sword Zhang Jun Bao. Now there was a force to be reckoned with, a man who made his way to the peak with a single sword in hand and no Clan, faction, or family to stand behind him.

And when he stumbled across the true secret of the Dao, the Imperial Clan offered Zhang Jun Bao one of two choices; to bend the knee and serve for a lifetime, or perish where he stood.

Of course, this was merely hearsay as Bai Qi heard it from the lips of the Mataram Divinity, the Clan Ancestor YuKon, but he believed it all the same. Had the Western Wall not fallen when it did, Bai Qi would eventually have found himself conscripted as some Imperial protector, a nanny and wetnurse for the next generation of Imperial whelps no doubt. There was a time when he served the Emperor with love and devotion in his heart, because he believed that in spite of all the horror and atrocities found throughout the Empire, the Emperor still had his people in his heart. That no longer applied, for Bai Qi had seen through the façade and hated himself for not seeing it decades sooner, for he wasted a lifetime as the Lord of Martial Peace fighting for a dream which the Emperor would never allow.

Killing the rebel Magistrate of Yique catapulted Bai Qi’s career, but he hadn’t known it at the time, for his trials and tribulations had yet to end. In the aftermath of the rebellion came a purge unlike anything he’d ever seen, one which claimed the lives of millions of innocents, as well as the lives of his mother and father both. Even though he understood the necessity, it was a hard thing to stand idly by as his beloved parents suffered so, yet he watched all the same because it was all he could do for them. They had to die so that billions more could live, because a Defiled outbreak inside a single city could easily spread across the province like a desert storm engulfing everything in its path. Even then, seeing his parents suffer was almost enough to unmake him, for Bai Qi loved them both so, and was so convinced of their innocence that he was ready to slaughter his way through the Imperial soldiers just so he could end their suffering.

And if his father had turned even a half-second later, then Bai Qi might well have done just that.

There it was, irrefutable proof that the parents of the Hero of Yique were Defiled, for only the Defiled could turn into Demons. That was the truth as Bai Qi saw it, and it shattered his heart to believe it. At the time, he could not have cared less about the far-reaching implications, of how this news would have ruined his military career or perhaps even send him to join them in their ignoble fate, but no one knew it was his father who turned, for no one cared about a peasant farmer’s fate, not even one who’d sired a Rising Dragon and the hero of the day. Though future rumours hinted at such a possibility, only Bai Qi himself knew them to be true, for even those who spread those rumours believed they were whispering lies that only the gullible would ever acknowledge. For decades, Bai Qi believed himself tainted and susceptible to the Enemy’s influence, so he set out each day with the intention to resist with all his might, and in doing so, he opened himself up to the Yin and Yang of Heavenly Energy. That was the true secret to his success, not his talent or comprehension, but rather the fact that he walked a more complete Path than the one shared by his fellow countrymen. Those suspected of Defilement were purged not because they were the Enemy, but because a Defiled Martial Warrior was liable to see through the lies of the Imperial Clan and understand the truth of the Dao.

And so after the Emperor closed the Western border without so much as a fight and Mataram YuKon revealed that he had been Mentored by the commander of the Enemy forces, the Uniter himself, Bai Qi was more than happy to join hands with the Defiled to overthrow the Emperor once and for all.

Millions had already died for this cause, and there were still millions more who would fall before this Holy War would end, but Bai Qi knew it was a price which needed to be paid. Might makes right, and though the Emperor was mighty indeed, the Imperial Clan was no longer united and undivided as the Supreme Families vied for supremacy over which of their Scions would sit on the Imperial throne next. They cared naught for the outer provinces because they believed their strength unshakable, but their hubris would be their downfall once Bai Qi lead his conquering army of Chosen to the Eastern Province.

A path which proved pricklier than expected all due to the interference of one Falling Rain, as well as the wealth of hidden dragons lurking alongside him. Bai Qi had long since been aware of the Divinities of the Saint’s Tribulations Mountains, but matters of Divinities were beyond his ken. The Treaty kept them from taking part, though the Uniter had pushed the bounds of the Treaty too far and was now paying the price for his folly with the death of the Phantom. More of the boy’s work, apparently, and though Bai Qi did not understand how a Martial Warrior so young could soar to such heights, he knew that once Falling Rain was dead and gone, this battle would be all but won. With the tribesmen, Chosen, and half-Demons already in play, the balance of power was almost equal, yet the Uniter still had an army of Demons to call upon, Demons kept in check by Falling Rain. The boy possessed a Talent that allowed him to kill a Demon with little more than a touch, and he was fast learning how to kill Peak Experts with even less, as First Blade Junta discovered far too late after being cut down by a powerful working of Heavenly Energy emanating from the young Legate himself.

Were the stakes any lower, Bai Qi would’ve been tempted to retreat and offer the boy a truce, for there would soon come a day when the Imperial Clan set their sights on Falling Rain, and the boy was not one to bend the knee. Once this came to pass, the boy would either die or be driven into the arms of the ‘Enemy’, where Bai Qi would welcome him with open arms. Though on the surface, it appeared as if young Rain relied on a wealth of luck and happenstance to achieve his goals and rise to where he stood, Bai Qi saw a method to the boy’s madness even if he failed to wholly grasp it outright. Every decision the boy made hid devious intent and purpose, whether it be compound interest leading to outrageous debt, purchasing iron futures before unveiling his cast iron methodology, or securing bell founders in preparation of crafting Runic Cannons, the boy unveiled miracle after miracle until they seemed commonplace with frightening efficiency and purpose. Even the luckiest man in the Empire could not be so blessed, meaning the boy had his goals in mind before coming up with his mad schemes which foiled all of the Uniter’s best laid plans.

Bai Qi’s too, for he’d come to Shi Bei at the head of an army larger than any ever before expecting he would take the city within a matter of days at most, yet here he was now fifteen days later, second guessing his decisions and wondering if he should have cut his losses earlier and withdrawn. That had been his initial suggestion in fact, when he saw the boy come in riding a ship he carried two-hundred and fifty kilometres inland on a wave of Water Chi. Mataram YuKon insisted that the boy was not yet a Divinity, but that only made Bai Qi all the more wary, for if Falling Rain could already wield so much power as a mortal, how formidable would he be once he took the next step?

Alas, the Uniter insisted they continue in spite of it all, assuring Bai Qi that victory would soon be in hand, the same way he insisted Central would fall with little more than a wave of a hand once they finished consolidating the West. Two years later, concrete, catapults, crossbows, and Cannons put an end to those dreams, and they did so again here in Shi Bei, for Mao Jianghong had left a city in ruins and returned not two weeks later to find a fortress of towering concrete walls manned by a hundred-thousand crossbows which rained bloody death upon the tribals without reprisal. A formidable weapon of war, the crossbow, and Bai Qi had long since tasked the craftsmen of the West to uncovering the secrets to their construction, but thus far, they had yet to devise anything to match the quality shown in Falling Rain’s ranged weapons of massacre. The Cannons were another weapon Bai Qi coveted, but even the Uniter was unable to lay bare the secrets of their construction except to say that the cannonballs were propelled by some sort of explosive force that was then directed by a hollow column of iron that was sealed at one end.

There were so many secrets hidden within Falling Rain’s head, Bai Qi was almost pleased when he failed to kill the boy in a single strike. Surprised as well, considering he never expected to fail given Mataram YuKon’s assurance that no Divinity was poised to interfere. Alas, his assassination attempt was thwarted by a wall of water and one of the densest and most complex Domain-Plated defenses he’d ever seen, both of which had to have come from Falling Rain himself since all other variables were accounted for. It was one thing for the Bristleboar Divinity to shake off Shooting Star Nian Zu’s titular attack, but to see that same level of defensive strength in a beardless boy of twenty-one was remarkable to say the least. The wall of water was even more impressive, a fixed wave which washed away the strength of his blow and would have rendered it weak and impotent upon contact. Difficult to say if the boy himself had deployed this Chi working since both the Medical Saint and Divine Turtle of Ping Yao possessed the capability to do so as well, but it mattered not who deployed it. Without his own Blessing to negate this hastily raised yet nigh impenetrable defense, Bai Qi wholeheartedly believed his attack would have been wholly foiled and his momentum stilled, leaving him motionless and helpless to Akanai’s piercing ax-lance piercing towards his neck.

Thankfully this was not the case, and Bai Qi could still deal with the formidable woman using his ready-made plans. No longer was he that rash young man who’d charged headlong into the Magistrate’s Palace, but a veteran of almost a hundred years who’d planned out every aspect of this attack. Akanai was strong, but within reason, unlike her monstrous Grand-Disciple Falling Rain who didn’t even lose consciousness after withstanding a full-strength attack from the Lord of Martial Peace. Though he failed to kill the young Legate in a single blow, Bai Qi put his surprise out of mind and devoted his full focus towards the Herald of the Storm instead, for to do any less would spell certain death. The woman was a hunter through and through, patient and enduring to the extreme as she took action only a handful of times these past fifteen days, actions which almost spelled doom for Bai Qi himself. This time however, he was ready and waiting for her attack, because even though she approached him at high speeds from a blind angle behind him, he knew she would target his throat.

Why? Because she was a hunter who struck to kill, and the only way to guarantee a killing blow was to target the finger-wide gap between Bai Qi’s helmet and pauldron. Even though her last attempt on his life shattered his Runic Armour and left him grievously wounded, she’d been unable to deliver a follow up attack to claim his life, and she was not one to leave things to chance. This made her predictable however, for securing another set of Runic Armour was simple enough which meant he only had to guard his singular weak point from her inevitable strike. A mere Domain Plating was far from enough to preserve his life against the powerful charging thrust of her ax-lance, but with the Uniter’s assistance, Bai Qi was no longer limited to the basic aspects of Chi and could use both Earth and Air to defend himself. Such were the benefits of a Blessing of Sand as it infused his Plated Domain to make it hardier and more durable than ever. Not only that, but he was now stronger, faster, and more mobile than ever as he Cloud Stepped away from his foe’s thrusting attack, with Earth Chi bolstering his strength and Air Chi augmenting his speed. At the same time, he directed a piddling puff of Sand Chi into her eyes, blinding and distracting her for a split second. Hardly the most devastating of Chi attacks, but his Blessing of Sand was not so easily mastered and he’d only been in possession of it for a handful of weeks. There would soon come a time when he unravelled the mysteries of his Blessing and learned how to shake the ground like Exarch Gam or slaughter thousands with a wave of his hand like Du Min Gyu, but Bai Qi was still mortal yet and would need time to decipher the secrets of its use.

A bit of Sand Chi in her eyes would not be enough to stop Akanai of the Bekhai, but it bought Bai Qi the time he needed to detach his sabre from the shaft and bring the blade around to Deflect her ax-lance. Never before had he moved so quickly, his actions guided by days spent practicing this and many similar such maneuvers, for his duel against the Bloody-Fanged Baatar had shown Bai Qi the flaws within his Path. The fact that his Green Dragon Crescent Blade was a combination of Spiritual Weapons was one of his best kept secrets, largely because he’d never faced an opponent strong enough to force him to reveal it, but this also meant he lacked experience in using its various components. A few weeks worth of training was hardly enough to make up for this failing, but better a few weeks than none at all, and he benefitted greatly considering one of his sparring partners was none other than Mataram YuKon himself. During the first fourteen days of the siege, the formidable Divinity studied Akanai’s every movement and helped Bai Qi devise a counter to her methods, and seeing how this same combination proved effective at defending Bai Qi from a Divinity under similar circumstances, he was confident it would be enough to thwart Akanai as well.

Sabre met ax-lance and Bai Qi allowed himself a small smile as a booming chime rang out, audible proof that all his hard work had not gone to waste. At the same time, he Cloud-Stepped in place to reverse momentum while flicking his wrist to flip his sabre about, savouring the rasp of steel upon steel. The movements had all been planned out in advanced, practised to the point of perfection for this one, glorious moment in which the hunter would become his prey. A two-handed slash at the young Legate with his glaive, followed by a parry of Akanai’s ax-lance with his sabre, and now he would reverse course and deal her a back-handed blow that would separate her head from her shoulders.

A most worthy foe, this Akanai of the Bekhai, one who’d given him more trouble than any before. Though her Disciple Baatar possessed the ability to trade blow for blow, she was unable to do the same, falling far short of Bai Qi in terms of raw strength and unable to outclass him in pure speed, while the disparity in their martial skills were not wide enough to make up for the difference in overall ability. In all likelihood, he would overpower her within a dozen exchanges if they were to engage in a standard duel, but she never afforded him the opportunity. Instead, she picked her moments carefully using the Peak Experts of the Empire as her bait, the mantis stalking the cicada without an oriole laying in wait. Unfortunately for her, she would find that Bai Qi was no cicada but a mantis himself, and he was almost disappointed to end their back-and-forth here.

So imagine his delight when he discovered himself unable to execute his killing counter-strike, for the canny woman had somehow managed to hook the tip of her curved blade through the third ring of his sabre and bar him from completing his swing. Much as he yearned to feel her warm blood splash across his face and move on with his conquest of the Empire, he felt a stirring of glee and contentment to have found so formidable a foe. From initial charge to counter-strike, their exchange took place in less time than it took to blink an eye, yet even then she was able to anticipate his actions and come up with a countermeasure of her own. This wasn’t due to speed of reaction, for in a battle between Peak Experts, there was little to no time to react at all, meaning her actions were either pre-meditated or carried out at the unconscious level, either of which demonstrated a level of mastery worthy of Bai Qi’s respect and admiration.

But a lion holds nothing back even when hunting a rabbit, and Akanai of the Bekhai was no mere rabbit. Though Bai Qi wholeheartedly expected their exchange to end here, he’d planned for the worst and his body responded accordingly. Though bereft of the sabre blade adorning its tip, the shaft was still a Spiritual Weapon in and of itself and served as a staff tipped by two ‘ornamental’ coiling dragons, a weapon he brought about in a one-handed thrust aimed at Akanai’s chest. The movement wasn’t separate from his back-handed sabre blow, but part and parcel of the whole, a twin-pronged attack meant to ensure his foe died here and now. Again, she surprised him by using the leverage of her ax-lance to push herself away, twisting as she retreated to avoid the brunt of his attack as his staff glanced off her ribs and sent her reeling away, disengaging her ax-lance from his sabre in a show of superlative timing, precision, and forethought.

At this point, Bai Qi had a decision before him, one he made without thinking for there was no time for hesitation. Cloud-Stepping after her in hot pursuit, he angled to keep her away from the city and safety while trusting his honour guard to keep other Peak Experts in check. On the surface, it appeared as if she’d avoided any and all injury, but he’d felt the give of flesh and the crack of bone when his staff connected, for even a glancing blow from the Lord of Martial Peace was enough to kill a Peak Expert. Not this Peak Expert however, who fought on with a cold expression of almost indifferent disdain as if he were some hooligan accosting her in the marketplace rather than a foe unlike any she’d ever before faced. Even as he exchanged blows with her in mid-air, he found himself drawn to her sapphire eyes and enamoured by her hair of golden wheat. A beautiful and exotic woman, this Akanai, a half-beast of unknown lineage even the Uniter was unable to determine, which in and of itself was alarming, for it meant there could be an Ancestral Beast still unaccounted for amongst the Bekhai’s allies.

An unsettling thought, given how most ‘neutral’ Divinities resided within the Azure Empire and therefore sided with the Imperial Clan. This made the Uniter’s penchant for pushing the boundaries of the Treaty all the more peculiar given how he would likely be annihilated within the day if a war between Divinities were to break out, though little to nothing of the Empire would likely remain. A matter not for Bai Qi to worry about however, for he could do nothing to change the outcome should such an event take place, meaning there was no sense in even considering it as a possibility. The only reason he cared was because some Ancestral Beasts treated their offspring better than others and had expressed their willingness to break the Treaty to protect them, which was why some individuals like Eccentric Gam were handled with more care. If the Earth-Blessed half-fox were to die in single combat, then all was well and good, but Heavens knows what the Fox Divinity would do if her ‘precious’ heirs were harmed by means most foul.

Alas, Bai Qi was unsure how Akanai’s progenitor would respond to an unjust death, else he’d have sent the Phantom to kill her instead of targeting the Legate. Falling Rain was a constant source of aggravation and progressing by leaps and bounds with each passing day, but Bai Qi would much rather deal with him than his formidable Grand Mentor. Even injured and outmatched as she was, she mounted a daunting defense as he chased her across the breadth of Shi Bei and failed to harm hide nor hair upon her person. Her movements were sublime to the extreme, poetry in motion as she hurtled through the skies, her ax-lance never slowing as she brought it about in a dazzling display of skill and finesse. Rather than an iron wall, her defense put him in mind of a roaring avalanche, one which displaced everything in its path and either carried you along or buried you beneath its wake.

Against any other Peak Expert save a select handful, Bai Qi was confident his sabre and staff style could carry the day, but he keenly felt his limits here against Akanai. She was always three steps ahead of his actions, if not more, reading his movements with such ease it was as if she could read his mind with a glance. Her broken ribs did nothing to hamper her actions as she flowed effortlessly between defense and offense to keep him at bay, and she almost broke free within the first second of disengaging. Twenty-seven exchanges and another second later, she reversed course and caught Bai Qi by surprise as she charged headlong into another engagement, slaughtering two surprised Half-Demons threatening to overrun a section of the wall before any of them could react. Predicting that another full second would pass before he could engage her again, he took this time to reform the Green Dragon Crescent Blade into a glaive for it was the form he was most used to, a move which nearly proved disastrous as Akanai belied all expectations and turned to assault him once again instead of retreating to make more room.

The piercing lance skirted past his throat by the barest of margins, thwarted by his hasty parry, and he felt the weight the world press down upon him as his foe used her leverage to deal a powerful strike that travelled all of three millimetres. This infinitesimal swing carried more power than what most Martial Warriors could match with an all-out attack, and Bai Qi’s muscles groaned as he strove to keep the wickedly curved blade from kissing his throat. A single moment of weakness and he would lose his life here, yet that split second of resistance felt like an eternity as he held out against all odds before being flung away and sent hurtling down to the battlements below. A lesser man would have crashed into the stone and been injured upon impact, but Bai Qi rallied his wits in time to position the butt of his glaive to absorb the bulk of the impact, allowing himself to pivot about and land feet first and disperse the rest of the force. Even then, the landing was jarring and rough, the concrete crumbling beneath his feet to reveal the iron lattice framework holding it all together. Fighting to stay standing nearly cost him his life once more as he faltered in the face of Akanai’s follow-up attack, another powerful charging thrust which he dared not take head on. Nor could he retreat in time thanks to his unstable footing, so all he could do was twist in place and pray his Runic Armour and Domain Plated Defenses were enough to blunt her blow.

It was, but only barely, and he heard the shriek of metal as his Runic breastplate buckled and broke beneath the force of a hurtling mountain. As the tip of her ax-lance collided with his Domain-Plated defenses, he shunted off as much of the force as he could through Deflection and Reverberation as he could. The bulk of it went into the air around him, but he directed a large portion of it into the ground beneath his feet, and the shattered concrete exploded into shards of stone and clouds of dust that obscured them both from sight. A good thing too, because Bai Qi would not want others to see his defenses blown apart by a single attack, even one as domineering as Akanai’s Ground-Shrinking Strike. The premise behind it seemed simple enough at first glance, as both Bai Qi and Mataram YuKon were able to identify the Movements it comprised of, namely Balance on Windy Leaf and Pierce the Horizon. In practice however, neither of them were able to replicate the combination attack, a failure which stung their pride seeing how even young Falling Rain had been able to do it. It was only upon further inspection that they realized why, namely that this was not a sequential combination of two movements, but rather a blending of the two in one.

In short, Akanai was not performing Balance on Windy Leaf followed by Pierce the Horizon. No, she performed a single movement that melded those two movements into a separate and distinct movement that was wholly her own. This wasn’t the first time Bai Qi had seen something like this, but the woman used this unique movement to strike and fade away without offering him a chance to retaliate. Frustration did not even begin to describe his emotions as he sailed back through the air and concrete dust, his body passing through poured stone and iron lattice like a ship cutting through the waves. The sands rose to meet him as he slammed into the ground, the breath driven from his lungs despite all his best efforts to blunt the impact as best he could, and only then did he dare admit the truth.

He, Bai Qi, the Lord of Martial Peace and Prince of Barbarity, was sorely outmatched.

Time stopped as he retreated into the void and immersed himself within his Natal Palace, seated atop his Natal Throne which his soul never left unguarded. He’d seen first-hand what could be done to an unsuspecting foe, and even though someone as weak-willed and feeble-minded as young Gen was able to resist the Uniter’s insidious influence, Bai Qi was not a man who left things to chance. In spite of the dire circumstances, he allowed himself a moment to bask in the comfort of his surroundings, for the surge of fond memories and familiar emotions were most welcome in this time of great need. Here he sat in his childhood home, a humble shack with only a single room and a chest of sun-baked clay to store their clothes. In the corner sat a broom with a shaft of bone and bristles of hard camel fur which his mother used to wage a losing war against the shifting sands, for the hemp cloth covering their door did nothing to keep it out. Aside from that, there was little else worthy of note other than a few basic trappings and tools necessary for life in the desert, but to Bai Qi, this would forever and always be his home. Here they slept during the day to escape the oppressive heat of the sun, and at nights, father would set out to toil in the mines while mother set to work with her embroidery with Bai Qi at her feet, singing songs all the while to keep him entertained. As a young boy, he was always at her heels whenever awake, for unattended children were often snatched up for some nefarious purpose or the other, and though these days were the harshest of times, Bai Qi had been happiest here at her side.

Because all this came before they moved to the city where his parents would die, a traumatic event that tainted all the memories he had of those days.

There was more to his Natal Palace than just this hovel here, but he cared not to explore it just yet. With little more than a thought, the sand swirled around him to form a construct in the shape of a man and woman. They were supposed to be his mother and father, but he’d all but forgotten their faces by now, and no matter how hard he tried, he could never get the details just right. Their deaths were what set him upon this Path, because even though his father turned into a Demon at the end, Bai Qi never blamed him for it. No, instead, he blamed himself, because he chose honour and duty above love and family, and it cost him everything he held dear, a mistake he regretted to this day. Even if it meant dying in obscurity in an attempt to flee the city, Bai Qi wanted more than anything to go back and at least try to save his parents from their inevitable fate, because only then could he die without a guilty conscience.

Instead, he set out to right the wrongs of the Empire by bringing the West under his control, a laughable goal which would never have succeeded so long as the Mataram Clan remained. Oh what a fool he’d been to not see it sooner, the fact that they were content to let him rule with an iron fist because it mattered not one whit in the end, but Bai Qi thought that would change once he toppled the Emperor from his throne. Now, he’d failed and faltered before even leaving the West, a far cry from where he’d envisioned how his journey would end.

There was still a chance to turn things around. He knew this in his heart of hearts. Embrace Imbalance for only a moment and he would touch upon power he’d only ever dreamed of, but at the cost of his future potential and humanity both. Mataram YuGan had done so and become a Half-Demon, as had a large number of Western Warriors and half-beast scions, but Bai Qi’s pride would not allow it. What use was there in surviving for a few years more without the prospect of advancement? While his strength would grow with time and practise, the Dao would remain forever closed off to him, for the Path of a Half-Demon was a truncated path, one which led to a dead end or worse. Who knew what secrets the Uniter still kept close? What influence could he exert over the Half-Demons? The man commanded regular Demons like dogs and slaves, so who was to say he couldn’t do the same to a Half-Demon?

No, better to die a free man than bend the knee as a slave, for he was a man of principle, if nothing else. Bai Qi was the Lord of Martial Peace, but if he could not bring peace to the Empire, then he would embrace the peace of death without regret.

That was why he was here in his Natal Palace, to make peace with his decisions, and his determination held strong even as the Spectres whispered their lies from just a step out in the Void. Their promises meant nothing, their assurances meaningless, and the power they offered was the sort of personal and selfish power he so abhorred, so it mattered not if it was close at hand. Surrender control for only a moment, then seize control once more, that was the Path they lured him towards, one which went against everything he stood for because then he would no longer be himself. Rather than give in to their lies, he instead knelt before his parents and tried to remember their faces in life and forget how they looked at the end while being tortured and tormented for the ‘greater good’. Falling forward flat on his face, he kowtowed before them nine times before straightening back up. “Mother,” he began, and tears filled his eyes as he took her hands in his own, wishing she’d had a chance to see how much he’d grown. “I, your unfilial son, failed you. Though father’s soul has been lost to us both, I pray that I can be your son again in the next life, and every other life after this one, so that I might make amends and protect you as a proper son should.”

To his father, Bai Qi said nothing, for how could he apologize for driving a soul to extinction? Father’s soul was no longer his, and would forever be barred from the cycle of reincarnation, doomed to wander the immaterial Void as a Spectre and parasite in hopes of experiencing life once more. All Bai Qi could do was mourn his father’s loss once more, before opening his eyes to meet his end like the Warrior he was and fight to his last breath. The Energies of the Heavens surged as he found his resolve, and in this moment of darkness, Bai Qi found his way forward unobstructed once more as the secrets of the universe flooded through him in a surge of Insight and Inspiration. The sands rose around him in a storm of debris as his Domain billowed out in force, but it was all too little too late, a truth he understood and accepted as he watched the ax-lance hurtle towards him. This was his death, delivered by none other than Akanai herself, the Herald announcing his end for all to hear with the clarion call of whistling steel. Meeting the ice-cold gaze of her beautiful blue eyes, Bai Qi offered her a nod of respect even as her weapon pierced through his chest and heart, for he felt no shame in his defeat at the hands of a superior foe.

And so as his growing sandstorm faltered and dispersed, his dreams of peace came to an end, one he met with a smile upon his face, for at the very least, the Lord of Martial Peace had found peace with himself, if nothing else.

Chapter Meme