Where… am I…?

Hou Chao’s eyes felt heavy as he opened them, like they were stuck together with glue. He stared at the ceiling for several long seconds. It took him a good several minutes to realize where he was.

This is… the hospital wing in the palace… how did I get here…?

He struggled to recall what happened, wading through the strange fog that penetrated his mind, but he eventually recalled it all. The head elder of the Burning Hand Sect had asked for him, and he had been led to this underground chamber. Hou Chao had been stewing in his loss and didn’t think much about it at the time. When he got to the chamber, Yi Fu had spoken to him about his loss. He could remember that conversation even now.

“I am quite disappointed, Hou Chao. We spent so much time and resources training you, only for you to lose to your younger sister. Do you think those resources grow on trees? Just how much money do you think we wasted on you?”

“I’m… sorry… head elder. I promise to do better next time…”

“If you keep this up, there won’t be a next time. However, I am willing to give you at least one more chance. Do you dare to take it?”

“I do. I’ll do whatever it takes to defeaet my sister!”

“Good. Then take this pill. It will help you grow stronger.”

Head Elder Yi Fu had given him a burning red pill, which he’d swallowed without hesitation. His body had been wracked with pain after that. It had felt like his insides had been turned into a boiling pot of lava. He had never felt so awful in his entire life. Hou Chao remembered how he’d fallen to the floor, screaming in agony as steam and smoke wafted off him, and how he had reached out to the head elder for help, only for him to turn his back.

“It seems this one is no good either. I guess that’s the Shang Kingdom for you. Even their prince doesn’t have what it takes to master our cultivation method.”

Those had been the last words Hou Chao remembered with any coherence. His memories after that were fuzzy at best. He remembered a dark cave, cell bars, and a beautiful woman with skin like snow and icy hair. What happened after that? Hou Chao scrunched up his face as he tried to remember whatever details he could.

“You know… I never liked you.”

“What?! You don’t like me, Big Sister?!”

“I’m not talking to you, Yōuměi. I’m talking to my brother.”

“… Oh. That’s okay then.”

Hou Chao grimaced as his sister’s voice appeared within his head. He sat up and pressed a hand to his forehead. Now that he was thinking about it, he remembered hearing her voice a lot. He’d been barely conscious at the time, but somehow, for whatever reason, those memories remained.

“You were always mean to me when we were younger, and your bullying only got worse as we grew up. I’m sure part of the reason Father sent me away was because of how awful you were to me. I won’t lie. I hated you with all my heart. I hated the fact that you constantly blamed me for our mother’s death. It’s not like I asked to be born into this world… but you’re still my brother. You had better pull through this. I won’t forgive you if you don’t.”

He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. All this time, for so many years, he had despised Hou Jingshu. It was all because of what happened when he was younger. After their mother had given birth to Hou Jingshu, she had fallen seriously ill. She would play it off and pretend nothing happened, but he remembered the blood she would cough up when he walked to her room so she could read him a bedtime story, and he remembered the one incident that had really set his heart aching.

The day she collapsed.

It had been a day like any other. He and Hou Jingshu had been playing with their mom when she just collapsed. Father had been away on business, meeting with clan heads and stuff. The panic he’d felt as he screamed for help never left him even now, and his despair had only gotten worse after the head physician arrived. He remembered however, after she had been taken to her room, he’d gone to see her and overheard his father’s conversation with the doctor. According to him, his mother’s deteriorating health had been caused by Hou Jingshu’s birth. She had gotten a very rare disease that affected cultivators. There was a cure, of course, but the ingredients necessary were impossible for a country like theirs to come by through anything but chance.

His father had done everything he could despite that, but it had been for naught. He had acquired the ingredients, and even paid exorbitant amounts to have an iridium ranked alchemist come and refine it, but his mom died before the alchemist could arrive.

If only Hou Jingshu had never been born, his mother would still be alive. Those had been his thoughts for so long. Hou Chao did eventually realize that it wasn’t her fault, that Hou Jingshu had never asked to be born, but it was already too late to mend their relationship by that point. He had hated her with all his heart. He couldn’t allow himself to let go of that hatred because that also meant letting go of the very reason he began cultivating.

Hou Chao stumbled to his feet and made his way out of the hospital. He was surprised no one was there. There should have been a nurse looking after him, shouldn’t there? Where had they gone? As he stumbled through the hallways, leaning against the wall, he heard shouting.

“Hou Gun! What do you think you’re doing?! Have you gone mad?!”

“Mad? I’m perfectly sane, thank you. Now, I suggest you all surrender if you know what’s best for you… unless you want our dear father to die.”

***

Perhaps it was because he had come into this situation late, but he had no idea how matters had taken such a turn. When did Hou Gun turn traitor? Why? Hadn’t he been cying for the throne? Why would he become a traitor if he wanted to ascend to Emperor of the Shang Kingdom?

He glanced at the others who had been present for the entirety of the invasion. They looked as confused as he felt. Only the woman dressed in Saintly Sword Sect garb appeared unconfused. Her expression of disappointment seemed more resigned than surprised. And now that he was looking at her, Hou Jingshu looked more frustrated than surprised.

“So you really were a traitor to the crown,” she said, brows furrowed, fists clenched. “How long? How long have you been plotting this?”

“Does it matter how long I’ve been planning this? You don’t need to know that. All you need to do is lay down your arms and surrender,” Hou Gun sneered.

“You must be out of your mind,” Li Hua shouted. “Do you not see yet? The Ming Province elders and Zhou Kingdom have all been defeated. The army will be routed soon. What do you hope to achieve by doing this?”

“Shut up! You wouldn’t understand! None of you understand what it’s like to be me! You don’t know what it feels like to be treated as a nobody by your own parents because of your lack of talent! What it feels like to be discarded because your family has deemed you useless! I don’t care about this kingdom! I only want to see it and everything my father and mother have built burn! I’ll show you all what happens when you underestimate those who have been kicked down!”

While he hated to say it, Wu Jian could actually understand where this man was coming from… at least, to an extent. His family had at one point deemed him useless because he was cowardly and avoided confrontation. His father had allowed him to be bullied in the hopes that he would toughen up. It was a cruel method of building someone up, and Wu Jian had suffered a lot when he was younger because of it.

While Wu Jian understood, no one else seemed to.

“Are you done yapping?” asked Loong Chen. The dragon had been picking his nose with an unconcerned expression like none of this concerned him. “Because if so, I’d like to just kill you now.”

“D-d-d-d-don’t even think about it!!” Hou Gun shouted in a shrill voice. “Try anything funny and I will kill the emperor!!”

Hou Gun sounded terrified, but Wu Jian didn’t blame him. He might not be afraid of this man now. However, when they first met, his presence had completely overwhelmed Wu Jian. It had felt like staring death in the face.

Loong Chen grinned. “You think I care if you kill that decrepit old man. I’m not here for him. I couldn’t care less about his survival.”

He glanced over at Hou Jingshu, who turned her head when she noticed him staring. That’s right. She was the reason he had traveled all this way. He wanted to meet the woman who was descended from Seiryuu and had a form of avatasism that allowed her to embody her dragonic powers.

He turned back to Hou Gun and grinned.

“Time for you to die.”

“Hold it,” Hou Jingshu said before he could move. She seemed unaffected by his impressive aura. “I do not know who you are, and while I am grateful for your assistance, don’t you dare do anything that would harm my father.”

Loong Chen’s face spasmed as though he was experiencing physical pain. He opened and closed his mouth several times. Then, with a resigned expression, he slowly moved back. Wu Jian felt like he was gonna have a heart attack. Did Loong Chen, whose overbearing arrogance he had come to know first hand, really just back down because Hou Jingshu asked him to?

“Good. Good. It seems you know your place, Jingshu--not like your mother,” Hou Gun’s sneer grew even bigger.

“What?” asked Hou Jingshu.

“Heh. Heh heh heh. Ha ha ha. I suppose it’s fine to tell you. I want to see the look of despair on your face anyway.”

“Hou Gun, there’s no point in saying any more…” The man beside him said. Wu Jian finally recognized him. It was Shao Yimu, but what was he doing here?

“Don’t lecture me. In case you haven’t noticed, all of your leaders are dead. Your words no longer hold any weight here.”

Shao Yimu glanced around at the corpses littering the ground. Some weren’t even a full corpse, and others were just splatters. His face twisted into something hideous and gruesome. Hou Gun waited a moment longer as though to see whether Shao Yimu would continue talking, then turned back to Hou Jingshu with a grin.

“The plan to conquer the Shang Kingdom has been in the works for some time now. Decades even. Your mom caught wind of the plot somehow, and that cost her life. They poisoned her to silence her.”

Hou Jingshu’s face drained of blood. “No…”

“Hah! That’s right! The doctor said she had contracted a rare disease, but she was really just in the way, so they killed her in a way that couldn’t be linked back to them. It helps that her constitution was always weak. The poison made her death look like an illness.”

Wu Jian gnashed his teeth together as he continued listening. Hou Gun would have been too young to have played a part in this event, but the look of ecstasy on his face as he told the story was pissing him off. He glanced at Hou Jingshu. His lover’s fists were clenched, her arms shook, and tears poured down her eyes. She glared hatefully at her brother and Shao Yimu.

What should I do? Should I manipulate space to teleport his heart out of his chest? No. Something might happen to Hou Jingshu’s father. Maybe I should kill Shao Yimu? It might provide a good enough distraction for Loong Chen to rescue Hou Jun… but whether he’ll rescue the man is up for debate. He doesn’t care about this kingdom. Maybe he’ll do it for Hou Jingshu though? He seems to have some kind of weakness toward her.

“IT WAS YOU!!”

A loud scream tore Wu Jian out of his thoughts. He looked back at the entrance to see someone rushing out. It was Hou Chao! The man screamed, fire blazing from his fists as he threw himself at Hou Gun. The older brother was so surprised that he could do nothing as Hou Chao punched him in the face.

“Loong Chen!”

“Don’t shout at me, brat!”

Wu Jian was moving the moment Hou Chao appeared. He raised his hand as he ran forward and channeled his chi.

[Spatial Lock]

The first thing he did was lock Hou Jun into his own space. That kept him frozen in place. He then manipulated the lock to pull Hou Jun away from Hou Gun. Shao Yimu tried to stop what was happening from happening, but Loong Chen simply clenched his fist and the man exploded into gouts of blood.

Hou Chao was screaming as he battled against Hou Gun, who was too surprised by the sudden assault to put up a fight. Wu Jian quickly arrived on the scene and slammed a knee into Hou Gun’s back. The young man screamed as his back snapped. It wouldn’t kill him, but it would cripple him.

Hou Chao was still screaming and looked ready to continue beating on his older brother, but Hou Jingshu interposed herself between the two.

“Calm down,” she said.

“What are you doing?! That man was responsible for our mother’s death!” Hou Chao screamed.

Hou Jingshu shook her head. “No. He would have been to young to have anything to do with that. Were you even listening? Now, stand down.”

Wu Jian tensed as Hou Chao’s muscles and veins bulged. He was worried the young man might decide and try and break through Hou Jingshu to reach Hou Gun, but then, as if the fight had drained out of him, the second eldest brother collapsed to the ground.

“Get these two to the hospital,” Hou Jingshu ordered. “The rest of you, come with me. Our soldiers are still fighting in the city. We need to help them.”