Snake 18, Year 8693 of the Grand Wulin Era, Hou Minzgzhou

"As you might think, all but a few of my Black Iron Gang and I are expatriates of the Sol Magna Empire. There are a few new recruits, and a few of the more unsavory types, but most of us were proud soldiers who fought for our country and to protect our people. " Regulus Septimus sighed, his eyes growing a bit misty as he reminisced.

"Well, why did you leave, then? Why come to the territory of the Myriad Existences Sect? I mean, it's pretty far from home and I dunno what kinda soldiers would throw away everything to become the least criminal group of bandits I've ever heard of." I asked, more than a little confused by the situation.

"We were betrayed. Chased out and vilified by our own fellow soldiers, treated as some kind of disposable toy by someone who was supposed to guide and protect us. We only managed to not die due to the help of a few important officers who did all they could to protect us. The reason those bastards targeted a bunch of ordinary soldiers and a man who barely qualified to be an Sergeant is-" He broke off, trembling. The memories seemed to weigh heavily on him, and more pain filled his eyes with every word.

I tilted my head and stared at him. It wasn't that I didn't feel bad for the man, but I was a kid with a pretty straightforward personality who didn't have much patience. I'm sure that if he's reading this, Regulus has forgiven my youthful insensitivity. "Look, it pretty obviously hurts to talk about, but if you want out of here, you have to talk about it." I said, my tone a bit terse . Ouch, that hurts to remember. I mean, I know I was a kid and all, but that was a really bad moment to not be empathetic.

Not holding the snarky little monkey kid's attitude against her, Regulus Septimus replied. "Yes, I know. To really understand this, you have to know how it all began. Ten years ago, I joined the Sol Magna army at 15, and , as follows procedure for a commoner like myself, I was given the most basic cultivation methods, weapon techniques, and the like. I found that I loved to cultivate, and as I trained and fought in the border scuffles and bandit raids and other duties of a soldier, my strength grew rapidly. The first 5 years were wonderful, and by the end of them I had already reached my current cultivation as a Warmage and been made a sergeant for that and my sucsesses in battle. "

"Huh, seems like you're ridiculously talented to get that far that quickly with basic methods. What happened, did you piss off some powerful cultivator organization or some jackass politician?" I said, puzzled.Why hadn't someone with that much talent and who was pretty obviously a decent person been given the best resources and

"Worse, I offended a general. You know me as the Black Iron Fist but when I was in the Sol Magna Army, I came to be called the Twinblade Thunderfire Knight. After mastering the basic martial arts and weapon techniques of the Sol Magna Army, I began to develop my own twin swords technique. I was always talented with the sword and the elements of fire and wood, especially the wind-lightning aspect of wood, so I tried some simple things first, like infusing one sword with fire and the other with lightning." He paused to take a breath. "By the time the first 5 years were up, I'd managed to create a peak Mortal Grade sword technique that fused lightning and fire energies together, and struck with as much speed and power as my insights into the daos of the two elements and the sword would allow. There was a general,Quintus Maximus Optimus, of the Sun Striders,the division of the Sol Magna armed forces that specializes in aerial combat. He was close friends with the general of my own division, the Burning Earth division, who were the main ground forces of the empire. This general had a grandaughter, and she would be what brought me down. You see, she wanted my Thunderflame Sword Art. Almost as soon as I began developing it, she saw its potential, and she would stop at nothing to get it." His voice shook, and his expression soured. How close had he been to that woman?

"So, what did she do?" I asked. It had to be pretty bad for him to still be this emotional about it this long after it happened, right?

"For three years, we were friends, and fought on the battlefield together. Whenever the Sun Striders and Burning Earth worked together, so did we. We saved each other's lives, laughed at each other's jokes, sparred with each other. We did many things together over those years, and I slowly grew to see her as I would a sister. And then? A confession I was extremely uncomfortable with. She claimed to love me, and maybe she did, but I turned her down gently, due to being lowborn and uninterested in her in that way. I don't regret that, or our friendship. but I do regret what happened next."

"Damn, dude, that's heavy. Anyways, how'd she react to rejection? A lot of people don't react well to that, especially when they have creepy and weird agendas involved."

The sadness in his expression gave way to anger, and his voice rose as he spoke."She did not react well. She left in a huff, saying i'd broken her heart, and that she'd get revenge. She came back a week later with her grandfather, and demanded that I should give her my sword technique as compensation, or no matter how great my contributions or talent, I would get nowhere. She knew how important that technique was to me, and how I wanted to make it reach the level of at least a Soldier Grade Martial Art before sharing it with others, but she wanted it, and she wanted to hurt me. From that point on, I wasn't allowed to spend the contribution points I earned on anything but food, clothing, or gear, cultivation materials I was not allowed to use, and I was not permitted to cultivate without her permission. It took the intercession of the General in charge of my division for me to even keep the Spatial Ring he'd given me after he knew i'd created quite and impressive sword art. Over the next five years, she made my life hell however she could. She bullied me and my subordinates, tried to ensure we got the worst assignments, made rude demands of my people. like making us wait on her hand and foot. Any time an enemy spy was caught amongst our ranks , or one of my subordinates messed up, I was forced to take the blame. In one instance, she fabricated an excuse to have my younger siblings executed and parents jailed for crimes they did not commit.Why she did that to me, I'm not sure I'll ever understand."

"So what did you do after that,and how did you end up here? All that bullshit was supported by a powerful general just because one bratty woman couldn't handle rejection, so what could you even do in response?"

"At first, I did nothing. I just quietly collected resources and gear, building up a stock for what I didn't know. After about a year, my subordinates urged me to leave the army and flee, so I decided to desert, and spent the next three years gathering enough stuff for me and the rest of the people you see here to escape and found a little gang of our own. We barely escaped, and that was due to about half the entire Burning Earth Division helping us fake our deaths, as they'd grown disgusted at the endless, pointless suffering that began over pettiness. We left a year ago, and slowly made our way here, where we arrived a few months ago,scoped the place out, and took advantage of the old man's death, all to establish ourselfves as a legit bandit group to shake off the suspicions that we weren't just a group of bandits who'd gotten lucky enough to get their hands on some gear. You know how many people in the Earth Dragon Continent have pretty much the same names we do? Thousands, and that's just outside Sol Magna, let alone within it." His expression softened a bit, I guess he was thinking about how his troops were willing to risk everything, despite the fact that he was the cause of their troubles in the first place.

"So what do you want? You're gonna have to suffer consequences, but maybe you and your troops could be of use to our sect. You know who we are, so you know how influential our parents are to the sect. Surrender to us, serve a short sentence as penance for scaring the shit out of these poor townspeople, and we'll do everything we can for you."

Regulus Septimus turned to his lieutenants. They all looked back at him, and nodded. He sat for a bit, thinking deeply. He spoke, and his voice seemed a bit hoarse. "Alright, I'll surrender. Though, once we're free, i'd like to have my men and I spar with you kids, is that alright? You seem really tough, and pretty decent besides, so it'd be good, clean fun."

"Yeah, that'd be nice. " I said. Septimus and his troops kneeled, and we placed Prison Walnuts on their chests, infusing them with mana until they did their thing. Alex spoke a command word, and all the prison walnuts shrank to the size of regular walnuts,without harming the people inside. I think it was some weird form of Spacial Storage for use on living things? Probably a combination of Life and Space Dao, then. Either way, it was convenient, cool, and gave me a lot of ideas for things to work on with my two best friends in the future. It was time to head home, and that we would do.