Bound at the ankles and wrists alongside his fellow Ukata clan members, Gao Feng’s body trembled with extreme fear at the sounds flowing around him. The orange light of Rala may have been just coming over the horizon, but Haven city was already a light with the fires of ruined buildings.

People screamed as they were butchered by the Crimson clothed invaders who came in the night wearing masks that resembled angry demons and stole away the last hope Gao Feng had of one day ruling over the Ukata clan.

From the top of the five-hundred-foot-tall perimeter wall surrounding Haven city- Gao Feng had a perfect view of the fires destroying the agricultural district, the training fields, and over a third of the first residential district.

How did everything go so wrong?

He looked up— a gargantuan bird construct of finely polished stone stood beside the wall, its head towering over the city. Gao Feng believed it looked lifelike, even from this close distance. But he knew it was not. He’d seen its mouth seconds before hundreds of people rushed over the wall and began attacking the city.

“Why are you doing this?” Ukata Teng De shouted to the ten cultivators standing apart from them. “Why gather us here, if you’re just going to kill us all anyway?”

“Teng De, enough. You’re wasting your breath.” Ukata Hao Li; The Ukata patriarch reprimanded.

The patriarch was a man of sheer will and determination- always fighting for the Ukata’s place in the world, always willing to do whatever it took to ensure they would survive whatever came their way. But now, his gray eyes held only defeat and exhaustion within them.

Gao Feng had never seen the patriarch look as old as he did, right now. His silver hair was drenched in sweat and dried blood, causing it to stick to his face and upper body.

The patriarch groaned and began to fall forwards, his old body finally giving in to the exhaustion he felt— he collapsed into a heap, accompanied by the worried shouts of three remaining Ukata elders.

But nine of the ten cultivators ignored their shouts. The only one who even glanced our way, was also one of the only two not wearing a mask.

The Cai pretender— Duan He slightly turned his head to regard us. But he may as well have been looking at a group of struggling ants trapped in a bucket of water. His impassive expression never wavered.

Bastard’s probably enjoying this.

Gao Feng had a chill of such intensity pass over him that his body shivered uncontrollably. He looked up and found himself looking into the eyes of an attractive twentysomething year old woman- The woman’s long black hair seemed to shimmer beneath the fire’s light, every glimpse Gao Feng stole beneath her crimson dress revealed skin that glowed with a radiance Gao Feng could scarcely describe.

She was simultaneously the most alluring woman Gao Feng had ever laid eyes on— and the most terrifying.

Her crimson eyes were filled with nothing, because there was nothing for her to look at. She carried herself in a way that suggested she thought nothing of them- they weren’t even ants to be crushed beneath her boot.

The woman broke off from other nine cultivators and made her way over to stand before the fallen patriarch.

“Get him up.” She commanded in a voice that reverberated down to Gao Feng’s bones. The other cultivators were quick to obey, lifting the Ukata patriarch onto his knees in only a few seconds.

Once the patriarch was somewhat vertical again, the woman began to speak. “I will offer you the same—” each word out of her mouth was like a physical blow to Gao Feng’s gut. Blood seeped through his lips and began to feel like he would faint.

The woman rolled her eyes and motioned for one of the masked cultivators to step forward. “Yes, boss.” A masculine sounding cultivators stepped in front of the woman he’d called boss and knelt down to our level. “You’re all too weak to hear our boss’s voice. Be grateful she is having me translate, else your organs would burst, and your bones would shatter. Nod your heads if you understand.”

We collectively nodded our heads.

The woman patted the masked cultivator on the shoulder, then turned away from us and walked a short distance away.

“I’ve already heard this conversation twice today, so forgive me if I’m a bit short. The boss is willing to offer you the same deal she offered the other, so-called, clans occupying the city. Hand over all your valuables, martial techniques, and artifacts. And reveal the one who killed Gu Qigang. Do this, and your clan will not be erased this day.”

Gao Feng’s eyes widened at the name.

“Fine, I would rather sacrifice my forbearer’s legacy than lose our future. But I do not know this “Gu Qigang” that you speak of.”

“I do!” Gao Feng interjected. “I know who he is— fat man; has two axes, right?”

“That does sound like him. Do you know who killed him?”

Gao Feng opened his mouth to respond— but something stopped him. He knew, Taryn was one of the last people to see the fat man alive. He’d helped Fan Shun, Xia Yawen, and Xia Wei pull his body from the rubble of the tower that killed Gu Qigang.

But if he told them what he knew, he would be condemning Xia Yawen and Xia Wei as well.

“… I do.” Gao Feng muttered after a moment. “His name is Taryn.”

“The Clanless boy?” The patriarch mumbled.

“Yes, patriarch. He killed Gu Qigang and fled the city with a woman- and kidnapping two others in the process. One of which was my fiancé, the other was her brother. I beg of you, please rescue them from him.” Gao Feng pleaded, dropping his head to his chest in an attempt to show his sincerity.

The masked cultivator was quiet for moment- then he began to chuckle. “Sure, kid. I’ll ask the boss to “save” your girl.” He stood up and rejoined the other cultivators— Gao Feng found himself glaring at the group when a few of them glanced his way and started laughing.

“Bear with it, Gao Feng.” Teng De whispered. “You might’ve saved us with that lie. Sending them after the Clanless boy might just give us enough time to figure out a way to turn the tables on them— but offending them only bring their wrath down upon us again.”

“It wasn’t a lie.” Gao Feng whispered back. “I saw with my own eyes.”

“That’s not possible. The boy can’t cultivate, we made sure of that—”

“He’s figured out a way.” Gao Feng interjected “I don’t know how, but he’s figured out a way. He’s a wild Eco cultivator.”

Teng De was silent for a moment— “Fan Shun…” He growled her name. “That traitor. I knew I shouldn’t have been so lenient with her.”

“Silence.” The patriarch said, motioning to the group of masked cultivators. “Fan Shun is a lot of things. But a traitor is not one of them. If the boy learned to cultivate, he learned it from another source. I would bet my life that Fan Shun did not break her promise… Unless we gave her reason to.” He said the last bit while looking in Teng De’s direction.

“I did nothing of the sort.” Teng De gasped, clearly offended by the patriarch’s assumption.

A flash of bright red light erupted in the sky over their heads, causing Gao Feng’s body to shake once more. But after several seconds of nothing happening, he found the courage to look up.

A glowing red light floated in the air high above their hands, a blue and purple tail trailed along after it. The sight seemed to please the woman as a slight smile found its way onto her cold face. She walked to the edge of the wall closest to the forest and looked down at something.

“About time.” The woman muttered, her voice barely above a whisper. But even that was enough to make Gao Feng uncomfortable.

The masked cultivators and Duan He formed a circle around the Ukata’s while the woman moved about a hundred feet away. The moment she stopped walking. She lifted a hand high into the air— a sword formed out of thin air- the blade was at least a foot across and as long as the woman was tall. In spite of this, she held it above her head with one hand.

In a single smooth motion, she rotated the blade until it was pointing towards the wall beneath her feet— seemingly without applying any pressure to the blade, it sunk into the wall as easily as it would have pierced a dirt mound.

Gao Feng caught the corners of her mouth turned down a fraction of a second before she twisted the entire blade ninety degrees. He watched as a blue light traveled from her hand, down the length of the blade, and sunk into the wall— a sound unlike anything he’d ever heard tour through the air for moment, then— Kaboom!

The entire wall shook.

Gao Feng, Hao Li, Teng De and the other elders were all grabbed immediately after the explosion and were dragged along as the masked cultivators leapt from the top of the wall.

Gao Feng was dumped on his back the moment they touched down on the roof of a nearby building. He groaned in pain from a bump on his head— But quickly forgot about the pain due to the insane sight before him.

A single line ran down the side of the otherwise unmarred wall. The sight of that line, more than anything, revealed the true power of the women the invaders called “Boss.”

A properly trained Battle Eco cultivator could slice apart a tree from a dozen paces. Someone on the level of Fan Shun- in her prime- could slice through a stone wall from that same distance… But this, was something Gao Feng had never imagined possible.

Gao Feng was shocked once again, when the woman did it a second time. Twenty feet away from her first cut, a second one appeared. This time, Gao Feng got a front row view of the blue light is it traveled from the top of the wall to the base of the wall in the blink of an eye. Kaboom! The ground shook a second time as the light hit the ground and stopped dead.

While he was mostly distracted by the sight of Haven city’s stalwart protector being dismantled before his very eyes. Gao Feng became aware of movement around him.

To his left the matriarch of the Qiao clan was brought to her knees- her unmatched beauty was marred with soot and drying blood. Her robe had been torn in multiple places, revealing a dangerous amount of creamy skin beneath.

To his right the Cai patriarch- or what was left of him- was dropped onto the roof. The Cai patriarch had been a bear of a man- taller than most by half a head, the Cai clan’s patriarch was said to be the physically strongest of the three clan leaders… And yet, the thing dropped next to Gao Feng was little more than a sack of tenderized meat.

I guess this is what that man meant about your organs bursting and your bones shattering… She did that with her voice?

Gao Feng turned back to the wall in time to see the section she’d cut off, begin to tip over.

The piece of wall hit with enough force to shake the entirety of Haven city and cause a dust cloud a hundred feet high. The dilapidated buildings of the red-light district could no longer support their own weight, and the entire district collapsed in giant heap of wood and stone.

Everything went quiet as the dust began to settle— large, lizard like constructs of stone and wood climbed over the fallen piece of wall and entered the city by the dozen.

The entire situation had been pulled straight from Gao Feng’s worst nightmare.

What has been unleashed upon us?