“Not so fast.”

Looking up, she could see two figures.

Both were middle-aged men who had imposing statures, and one of them was someone she was quite familiar with.

“Greetings, Elder Genmo,” she said with a cupped fist. “This is?”

“Let us dispense with the pleasantries,” responded the other man. “You ought to know exactly why I’m here.”

He narrowed his eyes, sending a wave of spiritual perception out to scan the surroundings.

His was so dense that it could be felt on one’s skin.

After a brief search, his eyes stopped dead, locked on to Jihan, or more specifically, his hand, which had the mark he was looking for.

He widened his eyes, causing a surge of pressure to weight down on Jihan.

“Release Wuying at once!” he bellowed.

Behind his voice was the powerful force of an expert near the peak of the lower continent.

Few could stand firm under it; knowledge that he had gained after countless encounters dealing with various problems that would crop up every now and then.

It had become routine for him to speak and have others acquiesce.

However, things were different this time.

The boy stood firm, seemingly unburdened.

He furrowed his brows.

Never would he have imagined that a boy thirty years his junior would remain calm under his scrutiny.

And what’s worse, it wasn’t a struggle.

It was as if his presence were no more than mere dust on the boy’s shoulder.

As his frustration began to rise, the boy looked up to the sky, wiped his eyes with a sleeve, and yawned before responding.

“Would it help if I said I don’t know anyone called Wuying? Perhaps you have the wrong person.”

The elder narrowed his eyes.

His killing intent seeped out of them and pricked the skin like a thousand needles.

He floated slightly closer to the boy, almost going in for an attack, but regained his composure when he heard the man next to him clear his throat.

“Lanxiang Genmo,” he said through gritted teeth. “Is this your Lanxiang Clan’s answer to us?”

His seething anger was plain to see, and that was without even looking at the distortions in the air caused by his roiling qi.

Elder Genmo quickly responded.

“Of course not. This is simply a case of us failing to discipline the youth.”

He breathed an internal sigh of frustration.

That was Lanxiang Jihan.

He had been an oddity since birth.

And he had a keen knack for angering the older generations.

At first, it had been a mere nuisance. The boy was laughably weak, after all.

But when he broke free of his cocoon, he immediately became a much bigger problem.

He was now the biggest obstacle between the elders’ sons and grandsons and the clan head position.

That was why many wished for his strength to leave him just as quickly as it had come.

Elder Genmo was no different.

And this...

This was a great opportunity.

“Jihan!”

“Yes?”

“It’s time to put an end to this charade. You will release that man at once.”

Jihan let out an untimely yawn.

“This is a serious matter, Jihan. Do you know what your foolish actions have cost our clan? We had excellent relations with the Merchant Guild up until this point, and the two of you have single-handedly brought them to ruin. What do you have to say for yourselves?”

Jihan tilted his head in confusion.

“Well, first of all,” he said, “I acted alone. Meili had nothing to do with this.”

“Jihan...”

She looked over to him, worry clearly written on her face.

“Sorry for getting you involved in this whole mess,” he responded. “I just wanted to visit an old friend.”

“Jihan... Why would you...”

She was starting to understand what he was doing, and she felt terrible that she couldn’t think of another way.

He turned back to the two elders floating in the air.

“Secondly,” he said, “What Lanxiang Clan? I abandoned that name a long time ago.”

Elder Genmo’s eyebrows twitched.

He almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing and struggled to maintain a straight face.

Fortunately for him, he had quite some control over his facial muscles and was able to manipulate them to produce a concerned frown.

He calmed his lungs and spoke in a solemn tone.

“Do you realise the implications of the words you have just spoken, Jihan?”

“Of course I do,” he responded. “To be honest with you, I never viewed any of you as my family. Yours was just a convenient name for me to use for my own goals.”

Hearing those words, Elder Genmo almost burst into laughter.

Meili, on the other hand, couldn’t help clenching her fist.

He was lying.

Of course he was.

He was lying to protect her and the clan from his mistake.

It had been his plan from the start.

She knew that.

She knew, but she was powerless to stop him.

“It pains me to hear this, Jihan,” said Elder Genmo in an award-worthy performance. “I always viewed you as a nephew.”

He sighed, making sure to properly express the pain in his heart.

“It is as you’ve heard, Geng Yong. This man is a rogue cultivator who has no relation to my Lanxiang Clan.”

Tears welled up in his eyes and he choked up as he spoke the following words.

“Feel free to deal with him as you see fit.”

He turned back to Jihan, his eyes stained red.

“Please don’t try to resist, Jihan. I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

He turned once more to Geng Yong.

“If he does attempt to resist, you can count on me to support your efforts. In exchange, I hope that this matter won’t put any undue strain on our two factions.”

“Worry not,” said Geng Yong. “I can see that this scoundrel has acted with the intent to harm your Lanxiang Clan. Consider this matter as a leaf in the wind.”

“You have my thanks,” said Elder Genmo as he bowed with a cupped fist.

At the lowest point of his bow, a sparkling drop of liquid could be seen falling from behind his arms.

A tear falling from his eyes which were now hidden, no doubt.

Geng Yong nodded his head and turned back to Jihan.

“Turn yourself in,” he said in a cold voice. “Resistance is futile.”

Jihan raised his arms in surrender.

“I wasn’t going to resist in the first place. Listen. Why don’t we talk about this in a civil manner? I’m sure you’ll agree that this was all just an unfortunate misunderstanding.”

“Silence! We do not spare such efforts for those who collude with demonic sects. After we pry all of the information we want out of you, your only outcome will be a swift death.”

“What?!”

Meili jumped in shock as she heard those words.

“You can’t do that!”

“Stay out of this, Meili!” yelled Elder Genmo. “This is a matter between the Merchant Guild and that demon.”

“How can you say that, Elder Genmo? Jihan would never-”

Elder Genmo shook his head.

“Think about it, Meili. Wasn’t Jihan always a weaker member of the sect? How is it that he suddenly rose to the heavens? The answer has eluded me for years, but now I finally see. What methods can achieve such results other than those of demons?”

That line of reasoning gave even Meili some pause.

She too wasn’t sure how Jihan had become so strong, and so quickly too.

But he could never...

Could he?

Ignoring the conversation between the elder and the junior, Geng Yong threw down a pair of shackles.

They landed just in front of Jihan.

“Put them on yourself,” he said as he stared impassively at the scene below.

Jihan bent down to grab the shackles and proceeded to place them on his wrists.

“Wait!” yelled Meili. “You can’t do this, Jihan! I won’t let you!”

She still wasn’t clear on the truth of the matter, but there was one thing she did know.

There was no way she would stand idly by as her cousin was taken away to be executed.

She lunged forward, aiming to take the shackles from Jihan’s hands.

However, her path was blocked by Elder Genmo who appeared before her.

“Stand down, Meili,” he said, his voice laden with sadness.

Meili paused for a moment, but immediately resumed her advance.

She extended her right arm, spreading her fingers as she ran.

A small light shone off the ring she was wearing and a cool white sword appeared in the air there.

She gripped that sword tightly and yelled “Move!” as she advanced.

Elder Genmo remained in place, leaving her with no other choice.

Her heart raced madly, pumping blood through her veins and qi through her circulation paths.

Her sword began to emit a freezing cold which immediately decreased the ambient temperature by a few degrees.

It soon started to glow pink and started to release an icy cold mist.

This was a combination between her clan’s techniques and the Lotus Series she learnt in the Shimmering Sword Sect.

The fruits of her labour.

Frozen Lotus.

Her sword stormed toward Elder Genmo, threatening to first freeze, then shatter everything in its path.

Deng!

Her blade stopped abruptly, gripped by a frozen hand.

He had stopped her attack cold.

“That’s enough, Meili. There’s nothing we can do here.”

“No!”

She put strength into her arms, pulling her sword back with all her strength.

But it was held firmly in place by that frozen hand, refusing to budge even an inch.

“Jihan!” she yelled. “Don’t go! Father can fix this!”

She was able to catch a glimpse of Jihan behind Elder Genmo.

He now had the shackles on, meaning his cultivation was sealed and he was powerless to resist Geng Yong.

He was looking back at her with a smile on his face.

‘Don’t worry about me.’

She didn’t hear him say those words.

She could only guess that was what he said by reading his lips.

And that was all she got before he turned away.

“No!”

***

At that moment, it felt as if time had frozen still.

Geng Yong stood before her, suspended in mid-air with his arm outstretched.

His bearing was that of an emperor. He stood tall —his face devoid of emotion— and gazed upon the scene from an elevated position as if to suggest that all of this was beneath him.

It was the confidence of someone who had the strength to see to it that everything went their way.

Someone who never had to compromise.

And that uncompromising, tyrannical gaze was directed at her dear cousin.

He was being pulled into the air toward that man, the one who would lead him to his own death.

He knew this, and yet, he did not resist.

She understood his reasons, truly she did, but she couldn’t bring herself to agree with him.

If he wasn’t going to fight for himself, then she would do it.

That was what she had thought when she lashed out against her elder.

She knew he was stronger than she was.

Of course he was.

She wasn’t too proud to admit it.

However, she thought she would at least be able to get past him.

Both were in the minute realm, with only a few layers separating them, and she had defeated many opponents who had reached higher levels of cultivation than she had, so just that much shouldn’t have been impossible for her.

That was what she thought, but she was quickly reminded what it meant for one to be an elder of the clan.

It had little to do with one’s age.

In fact, age wasn’t even a factor.

What gave them the honour of being referred to as elders was their competence.

Among their own generations and even those that came before, they stood as the wisest, the most cunning, the most fearsome.

They were the elite.

And now, one of those elite was standing in her way…

She had no voice to speak here.

No place at the table.

She was powerless.

The thought encroached upon her mind like looming shadows, slowly consuming all the light she had left.

Soon the light had gone. All was dark.

‘No!’

A tiny flicker still remained. A final hope.

‘I may not be able to save you, but I know people who can.’

The first was her father. He would be able to put an end to this with the snap of a finger.

However, he remained with the clan and would not be able to arrive in time.

Next was the headmaster of the Academy. He would not stand idly by as one of his students was taken away.

But the same limitations applied there as did with her father.

That left the last one.

‘Uncle Zhi.’

The leader of the Shimmering Sword Sect, the first disciple of the Mountain Splitting Sword Saint, and her mother’s senior brother, Fu Ren Zhi.

‘If anyone can save Jihan, it’s you.’

Her chest felt tight as she looked over to the sword-shaped mountain that stood as the symbol of the sect.

It was radiating a powerful and heavy sword intent. One that almost pricked at her eyes as she gazed upon it.

This was something that would only happen when the sect leader; when Fu Ren Zhi was cultivating there.

She breathed a sigh of relief, then focused her mind’s eye on her right hand. There, on her middle finger, was a simple silver band.

She rubbed it with her thumb, causing it to glow faintly, and in the next instant, a golden light emerged from it.

This golden light formed a small rectangular talisman covered in intricate lettering.

She pressed it firmly between her thumb and index finger, then sent her spiritual perception into it, causing it to glow brighter before disappearing.

“Please, Uncle Zhi,” she whispered, “Save him.”

One breath.

Two breaths.

Three…

Nothing had changed.

Jihan was still being pulled toward Geng Yong, who didn’t seem to take notice of any disturbance.

It was clear to her what that meant.

She stared at the mountain in shock, her jaw trembling.

Uncle Zhi had decided not to get involved…

She could not stop the tears from building up in her eyes, nor could she bear to keep watching as Jihan was taken away.

She dropped to her knees and let the tears fall as she sobbed, clutching the soil in her hands, frustrated by her own powerlessness.

“This is the only way, Meili,” said Elder Genmo, his voice wavering.

Meili didn’t respond, and after seeing that she had lost the will to resist, Elder Genmo sighed then left her to her own devices.