The vault was actually located on the first floor—though it was more like a cellar, given the sloping tunnel that led to it. True to her word, the leader of the mages directed them to a poorly hidden entranceway, which led through an underground tunnel to a pair of heavy iron doors. At a glance, Yoshika could clearly see that it had been magically reinforced somehow, and was also the origin of the wards that had been disrupting her domain. It had clearly been built to withstand xiantian cultivators—but it didn’t account for Yoshika.

“Dae, where do you think the wards are inscribed?”

Dae glanced uneasily at Yoshika, still dragging the man that she had maimed and interrogated along with her.

“Er, I can’t say for certain—it blocks my mana sense entirely. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say that they were probably etched into the inside of each door to maximize efficiency while minimizing exposure to potential tampering from enemies. That’s how I’d do it, anyway.”

Yoshika nodded—Dae’s guess affirmed her own assumption. She left the crippled mage propped up against a wall and tested the heavy doors, but they were firmly barred shut and magically impenetrable even to her domain. She crossed her arms and scowled at it, considering her options. Harada Jun whistled appreciatively at the obstacle, giving Yoshika a knowing smile.

“So Miss An—or, I guess it’s Yoshika now? Are you gonna use the same technique that destroyed Dae’s formation back during the tournament? If so, can you warn us so that we have time to clear the building? I’d rather not be here if you’re going to reduce the place to a crater.”

Ja Yun looked up, alarmed.

“Wait, what!? No no no, what!? You can’t just say that and not explain anything! Is that a thing she can do? Who am I kidding—of course that’s a thing she can do. Y-Yoshika, you’re not going to do that...are you?”

Yoshika chuckled and shook both her heads.

“No. We’ve gotten much better at controlling it, but that technique is still very dangerous, and I couldn’t guarantee the safety of anyone nearby. I wouldn’t use that in the city.”

Ja Yun stared at her, narrowing her eyes.

“I have got to hear the story behind that one.”

“Later. I have another idea.”

Yoshika circulated her essence and drew forth an aura of dragonfire from the depths of her soul. As she had against the demon hunters from Qin, she focused it into her hands, forming a blade of elemental plasma. She tried not to think about the memories it evoked—the people she’d killed, the blood on Jia’s hands, the recurring nightmares. Trying not to think about it had the opposite of the intended effect, so she instead just focused on the task at hand. This was a barrier between her and Boss Lee—the source of Jia’s childhood suffering. She couldn’t let herself be distracted now.

With a step forward, Yoshika thrust the blade into the iron doors. It passed harmlessly through the thick slab of metal, but cut through the enchantments on it like butter. As she slashed diagonally across both doors, something was disrupted and she felt as if a heavy burden on her soul had suddenly been lifted. Her domain expanded unhindered, covering every inch of the building and easily bypassing what remained of the wards she had just broken.

Technically, it was a temporary solution—all anyone had to do was infuse the formations with some more mana, and they would be back in working order. In fact, Yoshika could sense another formation just out of reach designed to automatically do just that in case of failure—quite the clever design. It didn’t matter—a moment was all she needed. With her Domain of the Earthen Realm technique, she turned the solid iron doors—now bereft of their enchantments—as brittle as glass and struck each one simultaneously with a resounding gong sound, followed by the ear-splitting sound of the thick iron doors shattering. It sounded nothing like porcelain or ice, but rather like a thousand nails being drawn across a thousand chalkboards—a horrible, discordant rending sound that left everybody wincing as the remains of the thick iron doors clattered to the floor loudly.

The inside of the vault was not what Yoshika expected. Instead of piles of illicit goods, ill-gotten gains, and other such ‘treasures,’ there were several rows of shelves, stocked neatly with preserved food, rice, and medicine. There were formations to produce water and replenish the air, and mana-powered cooking stoves near the only things of actual value in the entire vault—piles upon piles of mana stones to maintain the various formations. This was not a place for the gang to sequester their illicit goods, it was a panic room—designed to last the occupants for days, weeks, or perhaps even months if they rationed carefully enough.

Speaking of the occupants, there were many, all of them half-spirits. Dozens of men and women—even a few children—all huddled up together and cowering away from Yoshika with their ears covered to protect them from the horrible cacophony her entrance had caused. In the center of the room, the only person not cowering met Jia’s eyes with a steely gaze. His eyes were the same golden color as her own, though the similarities ended there. The half-spirit man was tall and well-dressed, his fine clothes leaning a bit more practical than opulent—more like that of a wealthy merchant than a noble or a mage. His long, canid ears pointed straight up, making him look even taller, and his hair and fur were all a dirty blonde. He opened his mouth to speak, and his voice was smooth and calm, despite the almost imperceptible tremble in his hands held behind his back.

“You could have just made an appointment, you know.”

Yoshika scowled—she was in no mood for witty banter, and it took everything she had not to strike him down that instant. Like everyone else in the room, he was entirely mortal—his aura showed no signs of activity and there was no essence gathered in his body. Yoshika was so surprised by that fact that even though she recognized the man, she still had to confirm his identity to be certain.

“Are you Boss Lee?”

The man glanced curiously between Jia and Eui before nodding in acknowledgement.

“That’s what my people call me, yes. Though the appellation is hardly fitting in this situation, I think. You can call me Lee Seung, if you prefer.”

Yoshika took a deep breath, then stepped back with Eui’s body. As with Lee Jung, this was something that Jia needed to handle on her own. Jia still felt Eui’s silent encouragement bolstering her from behind as she stepped forward.

“Do you know who I am, Lee Seung?”

Lee cocked his head at her curiously, his eyes searching as if he read from some invisible ledger before he snapped his fingers in realization.

“You’re...Jia? Lee Jung’s protege, yes? I was under the impression that you were dead.”

Why did everyone think that? She thought that Lee had spread the rumor himself to save face, but now she wasn’t so certain.

“Well obviously I’m not. You know why I’m here, then.”

Lee Seung nodded curtly, his expression still as cold and steely as ever, not showing a single ounce of the fear that she could feel pouring off of him.

“Clearly not. You’ve done quite well for yourself, haven’t you? Given the circumstances, I suppose it’s too much to hope that you’ve elected to return to the family with your good fortune?”

Eui scoffed behind Jia, but didn’t say anything. Jia shook her head incredulously.

“‘Family?’ Is that what you call this? Is that why you have us all take your name? What kind of sick joke is that? You have a vault filled with people!”

Lee Seung shrugged dismissively.

“Where else is one to put that which is most precious to him?”

Jia watched as the man’s eyes searched hers, she didn’t feel any emotion from him at all, just the cold analytical focus of a man trying to talk his way out of certain death. It disgusted her.

“So precious that you would sell them into slavery? So ‘precious’ that you force children to steal for you in exchange for paltry scraps of food from you and regular beatings from the town guard? Did you let Lee Jung waste away because of how ‘precious’ she is to you!?”

Jia was practically screaming by the end of her tirade, and to his credit Lee Seung maintained his cool facade even in the face of a raging cultivator.

“So you did meet her. I’m sure she’ll be very happy to have seen you again before she passes. Her daughter is a lot like you, actually. Have you met her?”

“Stop deflecting.”

Jia didn’t even know why she was entertaining this man’s blatant attempts at manipulation. He didn’t care about her or her family, he didn’t care about anyone in the room except himself. Yet Jia couldn’t help but feel as if she needed this. Needed to defeat Lee Seung on a level beyond simple strength. To destroy him with force alone would be the way of a tyrant—his way. Lee Seung sighed and spread his arms open, indicating the room around him.

“Look around you, Lee Jia. My charity is not without expense. My efforts to uplift the impoverished and the malcontent have a cost, and that cost is a burden we must all bear together. We are all one family, and we must all contribute. I offer that which the displaced and abandoned children of this cruel nation lack—opportunity, safety, family! But I can’t afford to feed and shelter those who cannot pay that generosity back.”

“You have all the generosity of a loan shark, Seung. You give with one hand and take with the other—leeching your so-called ‘family’ of everything you can squeeze from them before discarding them like you did to Lee Jung.”

“Lee Jung’s illness is unfortunate, but there’s little I could have done about it. I beg the ancestors every day for her swift recovery.”

It was such a smooth lie that even with her enhanced empathy, Jia almost believed it. Perhaps it was simply that on some deeper level, it was what she wanted to hear—that it was all a misunderstanding, that Boss Lee really did care for his people, that he was trying to empower rather than exploit. He was very good at saying what she wanted to hear, but there was no emotion in his words—no honesty. This was probably the first time he’d even thought of Lee Jung’s name in months.

“I’ve already healed Lee Jung. Nobody so much as noticed when I took her and Narae away—she’d been left entirely for dead.”

Lee Seung smiled brightly, and the disconnection between what Jia saw from his face and felt from his soul sickened her to the core.

“That’s fantastic news! The ancestors have answered my prayers. That’s exactly why you should return to the fold! Just imagine, Lee Jia, all the good you could do with the power you wield—for people like Lee Jung and her little Narae.”

For once, Lee Seung had failed in his attempts to tell Lee Jia what she wanted to hear. It was exactly the wrong thing to say, and he knew it. Jia could see it in his eyes as her own expression turned cold—feel the panic surging in his soul as his mind rushed to find a different answer. He asked her to think of the good she could do for people like her and her sisters?

“I am.”

Dae sensed it a moment before anyone else, reaching out a hand as the essence of lightning exploded throughout Jia’s body.

“Jia, wait—!”

At the speed of thought, Jia vanished from where she was standing in a flash of lightning and a boom so loud that it burst the eardrums of half the mortals in the room. Before anybody could react, Jia stood in the center of the room, gripping Lee Seung by his throat, a furious expression on her face. She felt a twinge of guilt at the harm she’d inadvertently caused to the possibly innocent people around her, but Eui was already using her aura to ease their pain—she’d make sure to heal them later and apologize properly. For now, she focused her attention on the piece of human garbage she held in front of her. He grasped and clawed at the hand around his neck fruitlessly, choking and scrabbling in a desperate attempt to escape her.

“Give me one reason. One real, honest reason why I shouldn’t just tear your throat out now and spare any other children from ending up like me or my sisters. Because right now, ending you seems like the best thing I could possibly do for them.”

The man desperately choked out a response, too panicked for another attempt at manipulation. For the first time since she’d confronted him, his next words truly came from the heart.

“I’m—I’m just a figurehead. A scapegoat. You think I can afford the kind of magic that powers this place? The mages protecting it? I’m not the one you need to worry about! You can think of me as evil if you want, but I assure you, I’m the lesser evil! If you kill me, they’ll come after you.”

Jia clicked her tongue irritably. That at least, was familiar ground.

“Tch, I’ve already got one of the great sects of Qin after my head for crimes I didn’t commit. Your backers don’t scare me.”

Lee Seung’s eyes widened in terror as his last sliver of hope flickered and died. He renewed his struggles and began to panic again.

“No! You can’t do this to me! I created you! You would be nothing without me! Your name is mine. Even if you kill me, you’ll never escape that! You are my legacy, whether you like it or—urk!”

Jia cut him off by squeezing his neck until she was nearly crushing his windpipe, rivulets of his blood ran down her arm from where her claws dug into his neck. She pulled him down to her level and stared into his eyes, speaking through gritted teeth.

“No, Seung. I became who I am in spite of you. You don’t get to claim that name anymore! Lee is my name now. My family. And I’m hereby ejecting you from it.”

Before he could say anything else, Jia flooded his body with lightning essence, causing him to convulse violently before losing consciousness. His eyes rolled back in his head, and his mouth frothed, but he was still alive—barely. Jia turned around and began to stride out of the vault, throwing Seung at Dae’s feet as she passed.

“He’s all yours. Whatever you do with him, don’t release him when you’re done. If I ever see that man’s face again I will kill him without a second thought.”

She didn’t wait for a response before leaving, Eui following closely after her. Once she was far enough into the tunnel to be out of sight, a mental dam broke inside of her, and she collapsed, slumping against the wall. Eui was already there to catch her, holding Lee Jia in a warm embrace as she broke down sobbing into Eui’s shoulder.