Xuefeng returned to his master’s headquarters in disgrace. Not only had he failed to retrieve the Crimson Dragon or to eliminate Yi Zen, but his partner Honon was killed in the process. When he arrived in the main hall, two other generals waited for him.

The white haired woman, Raolan, and the heavily armored final member of the group, whose name Xuefeng did not know. He didn’t speak, and his face was obscured behind a featureless mask.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve showing your face here again, maggot.” Raolan snarled, glaring at the swordsman.

Their master arrived at that moment, the young girl Meixian following behind him. They took their seats at the table, and waited for Xuefeng to speak.

“M-My Lord, I apologize for this failure…” he knelt before the remaining generals and their master, bowing his head to them. “Please, I beg you for one more chance.”

“What a load of shit, if you couldn’t beat them then, what makes you think you could now?” Meixian scoffed, putting her feet up against the edge of the table and crossing her legs. “A loser will always be a loser.”

“Xuefeng, I am a merciful leader… You’ll have your chance for redemption.” their mysterious master spoke with an otherworldly voice. “The others and I must prepare for the next phase of the plan, if you can return to us with the blade before then, your dishonor shall be forgotten.”

“Huh? Why are we giving this pathetic waste of skin any of our time, just let me gut him and be done with it!”

“Quiet down, Meixian, the decision has been made.”

Xuefeng, promising to bring the blade back soon, left the room behind.

“Raolan, have one of your agents follow him. Once he’s located the blade, which they’ve surely hidden by now, I’ll have one of you three retrieve it.”

“You don’t think he has a chance?” she replied with a question.

“Don’t make me laugh, he was never worthy of standing at the top, but his weakness hides our strength from our enemies… a misdirection.”

The group dispersed, leaving only the master and his daughter, Meixian in the room.

“I don’t get why you don’t just send me out, father. I would be back in no time with his head.”

“Soon, but you’re not ready.” he replied, standing up. “I will let you go out, but only once you have completed your training.”

“Fine~” she whined, hopping out of her chair. “Just you watch, I’ll be a master before you even know it!”

“This is good news, you’re a vital part of the plan after all.”

Meixian smiled, hugging her father, then ran off down the hall with renewed vigor.

And the darkness in the shadows continued to move, with only a few who knew it even existed.

“Xuefeng...” I, Yi Zen, stared at my old enemy. He stood at the entrance of the temple, unmoving.

“Two years… I’ve wandered the lands for two years tracking you down! Every day, I honed my skills for the day I would find you, the day I would taste my revenge.” he took a step forward, a powerful aura of malice surrounding him. “Honon was the only one who understood me, we were like brothers… you’ll pay.”

Lei was the first to step forward, a serious expression painted on his mature face. He was no longer the baby faced pervert who stood up to Xuefeng out of necessity, he had completely transformed himself. He spun his polearm in one hand, then took up his stance.

“We’re not the same kids you kicked around two years ago, asshole. Don’t think things will go the same way as before!” he rushed in, his polearm slicing in a long arc through the space between them.

Xuefeng disappeared into mist, reappearing to the left of Lei, kicking him hard in the side. Lei had put up a guard, but the swordsman had reappeared in a strange location. He hadn’t appeared directly behind him.

Xuefeng disappeared again, his sword crashing into Xinyi’s outstretched blade. He hopped between everyone before him, scattering us. His movements were faster and sharper than ever before, and he made it seem easy to fight a large group as one person.

“Bastard, you’ve gotten better all right.” Lei growled, picking himself off the ground. “Zen! His Skill has evolved!”

“..!” as he said that, Xuefeng’s sword appeared before me, aiming for my life. I stopped the blade between two fingers of my left hand, then drew my own sword.

“I have truly become one without weaknesses now, Yi Zen!” he screamed, his face distorted with two years worth of rage.

He teleported, dissolving into mist faster than I could keep up, he no longer had to wait to use it again, and he could control his direction with amazing precision. His range likewise had increased, making it impossible to keep up with him.

“I am now ten times, no, a hundred times stronger than when we fought before, Yi Zen!”

I parried his latest strike, hopping back a step.

“Ten, one hundred… even a thousand times stronger… what difference does it make?” My sword erupted in flames, my chi flowing out in a powerful torrent of energy.

Xuefeng leapt forward, probably intending to disappear again and avoid my strike. But in hi srage he forgot a crucial detail of this fight.

“Zero.” A wave of negative energy washed over the scene, emanating from within my body. Xuefeng landed, his teleportation failing.

“So what if you sealed that Skill, my sword arm is enough to take your life!” he rushed at me, abandoning his sense of self preservation in his anger.

“Dragon Arts…” I swung my sword, the dark colored flames shooting off in an intense wave that engulfed everything in its path. “Underworld Inferno!”

Xuefeng screamed with agony, his voice barely sounding human anymore. For one second, his terrible howl echoed in the mountain temple, but disappeared right after, for in the same instant, he was burnt to cinders, only ash remaining.

I sheathed my blade, and looked at the place Xuefeng had once stood. I had been in life or death fights before, but this was the first time I had truly killed anyone. Maybe it was the intense training we had done, or the fact that he was my enemy for so long, but I felt nothing from taking his life.

“Aw man, you didn’t even let me test any of my new moves, Zen.” Lei whined, walking over to me.

“This isn’t a game, Lei.” I replied, heading down the stairs. “Anything that threatens what I want to protect the most will receive zero mercy.”

“But still, to think we really became this strong… I couldn't even fight him before, but that kick didn’t even hurt me, it was just surprising.”

“Of course, what do ya think we spent two years here for?” Xinyi cut in, lightly punching his arm.

“I wanted to show off my Bloody Marine Arts…” Bai Cai added, looking sadly at a large gourd that had been turned into a capped bottle. It was filled with animal blood bought from a local butcher, allowing her to use Xie Jie’s abilities in a slightly less… psychotic way.

“You’ll have plenty of time to impress use with your hybrid arts, Cai, this is just the beginning.” I placed my hand on her head. The difference in our heights had only increased since we came here, as I had grown a lot more than her.

“Stop treating me like a kid, god!”

The foreign swordsman, or should I say swordswoman, Sonoda Tatsu, real given name Tatsuko, approached me. They weren’t part of my group, so obviously they had no idea what was going on in my life before training here.

“Care to explain who that was, since you’ve obviously fought before.” she asked me, her arms crossed and her foot tapping impatiently. “I don’t enjoy being left in the dark, you know.”

“Thought it would be best to let you return home in peace, instead of dragging you into a fight that isn’t yours.”

She huffed in annoyance, her dark eyes glaring right through me.

“We trained together for two years, don’t treat me like an outsider! Are we not comrades?”

“You’re right, I apologize for being so selfish.” I bowed my head to her, then began to explain things as we continued down the mountain. “An unknown group hiding in the underbelly of the country is after my life for some reason, and at the same time wishes to possess my father’s legendary sword… the one I carry. I’m not sure why, it doesn’t seem all that special, and I think they just want me out of the way because my ability is potentially annoying to whatever schemes they’re working on.”

“And you have no idea who they really are, because none of them would ever break and reveal their boss, right?”

“Mm, sounds about right, with that one, we’ve finished off three of the bastards, but who knows how many more there are… they could have expanded in these past years as well.”

“Sounds like you could use some extra hands, and I happen to know a very skilled warrior who just graduated a master of a second school of martial arts.” she smiled, her normally serious expression only ever softening for me, it seemed. “And you owe me for three months ago.”

“H-Huh, owe her what?” Xinyi looked back and forth between us. Everyone in this group had figured out Tatsuko was a girl long ago, and Xinyi wasn’t happy about it one bit, acting jealous any time we were remotely close together.

“We’re two adults, we can do what we wish in private, can’t we?” Tatsuko asked Xinyi in a deadpan voice.

“H-Hold on, what the hell are you talking about?!” Xinyi looked incredibly mad, but somehow it only made her cuter.

“Don’t worry, I know the only one he’ll accept as his wife is you, I won't get in your way… I’ll just settle for being his concubine.”

“Wha?! Now just wait here a second you harlet!” Xinyi started to chase after Tatsuko, who ran down the stairs, her arms loosely hanging behind her in a bizarre sprinting style.

“Zen… did you really? With Tatsuko?” Lei asked, a dumbfounded look on his face.

I ignored him and continued walking down the stairs. I don’t think he would believe me regardless of what I said, so what was the point of talking about it?

“Hey, don’t give me the cold shoulder over here, we’re friends, you can talk to me about this… come on man… please?”

“We were doing some late night sparring and then went to the baths together… I told her I would wait outside but she insisted we go in together… and, well…”

“And what?! Did you really do that?”

“Then she kissed me and told me it was her first, so I owe her a favor from now on, that was it, honest.”

“Wasn’t that your first too, Zen?” Bai Cai asked from behind Lei.

“Huh, I guess it was.” I respond, realizing the only person to kiss me before was my own mother, and that was only ever on the cheek.

Xinyi and Tatsuko were still arguing at the foot of the mountain steps when we got there, and I couldn’t help but sigh. Why did women have to be so difficult… I suddenly realized how much hell my life would be to walk into town not only with the two girls I left with, but a third. My mother would probably snap at the sight of yet another rival for her son’s attention, especially after not seeing me for two years…

Maybe we shouldn’t go back to the capital right away.