~~~

Liu Jin’s men have been split up, separated into five groups and shoved into small houses while the Brotherhood decides what to do with them. No group has made contact with any of the others.

Yet, somehow, all five groups end up talking about the same thing.

“He’s insane!”

The words are said in a hurried whisper. Loud enough to be heard by the other nineteen men crammed in the room but quiet enough not to be overheard by the guards stationed outside the house.

“We’re all thinking it, right?” Quan asks, nervous and pale-faced as he looks around. He’ll occasionally glance over his shoulder as if expecting to find something there. “He’s crazy, and he’ll get us all killed!”

“Is he?” asks Zei, another Five-Man Commander.

“Look around you!” Quan says, raising his voice. He winces and continues at a lower volume. “We’re prisoners!”

“And somehow, not one of us is dead or wounded,” Zei counters. “Doesn’t that say something?”

“Considering what these people have been dealing with, yeah. I’d say it does,” says another one of the commanders. “You all saw those people. If someone did that to my sister, I’d break their bones.”

The looks around the room range from dark and uncomfortable to annoyed and uncaring.

Quan is in the latter group.

“Are we supposed to feel sorry for every victim?” he says, rolling his eyes. “The commander was right the first time. The City Lord has the authority to do that. What are we supposed to do about it? Are you going to tell me you want to fight the City Lord?”

“The commander would win!” says a soldier. He gets several nods and murmurs of agreement.

“And then what?” asks another. “Killing a City Lord is a crime. We’d all be traitors.”

“It’s already too late to think of that.”

All heads in the room turn toward Zei.

“Where are we right now? What is the commander doing?” He asks everyone in the room. “He’s negotiating with the City Lord’s enemies. He said he wants to help them. He’s already a traitor.”

“See!” Quan says, pointing at him with his finger. “Even you admit it! All the more reason why we should cut our losses.”

“You aren’t listening,” Zei says, annoyed. “The commander is already a traitor. What does that make us?”

Understanding flashes across their faces. Someone gulps. Someone whimpers. Someone manages to frown audibly.

“But that’s… But we…”

“Are traitors by association,” Zei finishes. “Do you think the City Lord will care enough to give us a proper trial? You saw how he treats his people.”

“Civilians,” Quan corrects him. “Soldiers get preferential treatment. We all know this.”

“Commanders, real ones, not like us, get preferential treatment,” Zei says. “We are little better than civilians as far as people like the City Lord are concerned. Why should we put ourselves at his mercy?”

“Because we are strong,” Quan says, puffing up his chest. “More than a few of us are already at the Nascent Realm. With enough training, we can all reach that.”

“Why?”

Quan blinks. “What?”

“Why are you that strong?” Zei asks, not just at him but at the whole room. “Have you already forgotten? We are strong because Commander Qing has made us strong.”

“We are strong because we fought Spirit Beasts and ate their meat!”

“And the Commander didn’t take it,” Zei says. “You have heard how it is in other companies. The commander always takes most of the meat and treasure for himself. However, Commander Qing has always made sure we ate the bigger part. Come to think of it, I don’t think I have ever seen him eat. That’s what’s allowed us to grow. Otherwise, we’d be right where we started.”

Zei looks at the people around the room one by one.

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t see why I should take the side of some spoiled City Lord who has done nothing for us rather than the commander who has always done his best for us. Even now, I’m willing to bet the commander is hard at work on some brilliant plan.”

~~~

Liu Jin can scarcely recall the last time he has felt so relaxed.

“Are you sure, Doctor Qing?” One of the healers of the Brotherhood of Thunder asks him. “With only Spirit Grass as a catalyst, I do not think one can achieve the effects you speak of.”

“Because you keep boiling them in water first,” Liu Jin explains to the healers assembled around him. “Boiling the Spirit Grass dilutes its potency.”

“Perhaps, but the risk of infection-”

“Is non-existent,” Liu Jin says. “The heat of the furnace will eliminate the bacteria, so there is no need to boil it. In that way, you will have a much stronger catalyst.”

“Of course!” the healer says, hurriedly writing down everything Liu Jin says. He’s not the only one. All the healers in the room are hanging on Liu Jin’s every word. “But what about the Three-Hundred-Year-Old Fright Roots. How do they enter into the process?”

“Excellent question,” Liu Jin says, smiling as he begins to explain. Anyone looking at him now would only see a teacher surrounded by eager students, but it had not started that way.

To ensure that Liu Jin is not trying to deceive them, Leader Liu gathered the healers of the Brotherhood of Thunder and made them watch as he prepared the medicine for Elder Liu. The healers were suspicious of Liu Jin at first, but the ease with which Liu Jin answered their questions and his clear mastery over the medical field quickly won them over.

“Are you quite done?” Leader Liu asks darkly, glaring from the back of the room. The healers around Liu Jin jump back in fright, like children caught misbehaving by their parents.

“Almost,” Liu Jin replies as he changes the temperature of the pill furnace.

“And you are sure this medicine will work?” Leader Liu asks.

“Oh, absolutely,” a healer replies, nodding several times and rubbing his hands together. “Elder Liu’s health will be much improved. Not only that, I believe the knowledge Doctor Qing has shared with us today will greatly help us with-”

“That’s all I needed to hear,” Leader Liu says. “You can leave.”

For a moment, the healer looks like he wants to object, torn between the desire to converse further with a knowledgeable doctor like Liu Jin and natural respect and fear for his superior.

Respect and fear win out. He and the other healers quickly hurry out of the room.

“That was rude,” Liu Jin says. “There was no harm letting them stay to ask more questions.”

As he speaks, Liu Jin takes the pills out of the furnace. He’d have liked to use Direct Resonance to make them, but there is no telling how Leader Liu or the healers would have reacted. It means this medicine is not as good as it could be, but it should do the job.

“I’ll decide what is harmful to them,” Leader Liu says.

“You certainly have,” Liu Jin says, presenting a box with medicine to Leader Liu.

“The blue pills are for his respiratory problems. He needs one every morning, afternoon, and evening, but never on an empty stomach,” Liu Jin says, pointing to the pills. “The green potion is for his heart and arteries. He needs to take two spoonfuls after waking up. The red pills are for the pain.”

Leader Liu’s gaze snaps to him. “Pain? Your medicine will cause him pain?”

“No, the medicine is for the pain he’s already in.”

“My father is not in pain.”

“Yes, he is,” Liu Jin says with complete certainty. “It appeared gradually, so he has become used to it, but make no mistake, his body is in pain. That is what happens when one grows old.”

Elder Liu is not the victim of some esoteric disease or deadly virus. He’s simply a man whose body has started to give out on him. His lungs, his heart, his muscles. They all have begun to fail him, and pain is the natural result. Man is not made to be eternal.

Cultivation wouldn’t be so hard otherwise.

“I see,” Leader Liu says, his tone somber. “It seems I’ll have to talk to my father about his symptoms.”

“I will go with you.”

Leader Liu narrows his eyes. “You were not invited.”

“I am a doctor. He is my patient. I will not be elsewhere when you give him the medicine,” Liu Jin says, his tone every bit as firm as Leader Liu’s. Neither of them raises their Qi in the slightest, but the tension caused by their clashing wills is almost palpable.

“You are quite daring for someone who is supposed to be a prisoner,” Leader Liu says at last.

“I prefer to think of myself as an ally in probation,” Liu Jin replies. “Besides, if Elder Liu has any questions regarding the medicine, I’m better suited to answer them than you or your healers.”

Leader Liu clicks his tongue and turns away.

“Suit yourself,” he says, walking out of the room and trusting Liu Jin to follow.

Some would say Leader Liu is being too careless by taking his eyes off Liu Jin. He has not even put any guards around him, but they both know no amount of guards or security would make a difference. Liu Jin is in the True Realm. If he wanted to escape, they wouldn’t be able to stop him.

His position as a prisoner is nothing more than a polite fiction that allows the Brotherhood to save face.

“Were you the ones who made this city?” Liu Jin asks as they walk through the streets of the Brotherhood’s hideout. “I ask because I don’t believe I have ever seen a place like this.”

The hideout of the Brotherhood of Thunder is a small city carved into the side of the cliffs, and that’s no exaggeration. There are many houses and small buildings, but not a single brick. Everything has been carved out of the same rock. It is a tremendous feat of engineering.

The city seems to be divided into seven levels, each level being somewhat like giant stone disks connected by staircases. Due to the heavy mists of the Whispering Depths, there is little light though it’s still relatively early in the afternoon. It is easy to understand how this place has stayed hidden from the City Lord for so long.

“We did not build the city,” Leader Liu says. “We found it a few years ago and took it as our own.”

“You have certainly made good use of it,” Liu Jin says, taking a moment to look around. While not yet full, the city has quite a lot of a lot of people living in it.

“We needed it,” Leader Liu says. “Our organization had grown too large, and the people we needed to rescue grew by the day. It’s one thing to return one or two people to their villages after they’re taken, but it’s much harder to move an entire town. Even the City Lord wouldn’t miss that.”

Liu Jin frowns. “So the City Lord has been escalating his attacks. I had wondered about that.”

If the City Lord had been selling off entire towns since Murong Bang took power, there wouldn’t be any towns left. Instead, they only found one empty town, suggesting it is only recently that the City Lord has escalated to this degree.

“Once the City Lord ran out of easily-caught criminals and traitors to sell, he turned his eyes to his people,” Leader Liu says, his voice almost a growl. “The more he indulges in excesses, the more people he needs to sell. Nowadays, he grabs whoever he can and sends them to-”

“Port Blue Bolt, I know,” Liu Jin says. “Most of them are shipped from there to the Endlessly Raging Valley.”

Leader Liu stares at him.

“I am not uninformed of what goes on here,” Liu Jin says.

It is something Liu Jin found out through Lei Kong a long time ago. Murong Bang’s territory has two major ports. Port Blue Bolt and Port Long Cloud. Both ship prisoners of war and the like to those who would do business with Murong Bang.

In most cases, that’s the Endlessly Raging Valley, one of the Four Great Sects of the Crimson Cloud Empire and the home of the Wandering Wind, one of the strongest cultivators on this side of the Dead Plains.

The relationship between the Endlessly Raging Valley and Murong Bang is not like the one between the Eternal Flame Clan and General Nie Dan. There is no litany of treaties and agreements tying the two. While General Dan saw the need to make several concessions to the Eternal Flame Clan to ensure the stability of his territories and his people, Murong Bang had no such concerns. While not unhinged enough to risk angering the Endlessly Raging Valley, Murong Bang also sees no need to court their favor.

He sells, and the Endlessly Raging Valley buys. That’s it.

This arrangement has secured Murong Bang’s autonomy and ensured his top officials have a reliable source of income.

The people under those officials are considerably less fortunate.

“I lived in a place called Eastern Port City,” Liu Jin says. “It was a border city of the Crimson Cloud Empire that was attacked by Murong Bang. I was one of the lucky ones who managed to flee. The rest either died or were taken as prisoners. Some were probably sold off.”

Not marching into the Endlessly Raging Valley after Lei Kong told him everything had been one of the hardest things Liu Jin ever had to do. Liu Jin’s mind understood the futility of it. If he wasn’t willing to run into the Storm Dragon Empire and start fighting Murong Bang and his army, how could he even think of challenging one of the Four Great Sects?

The heart, however, is not so easily swayed.

Liu Jin even considered joining the Endlessly Raging Valley to get close to Murong Bang but found the idea far too distasteful. Besides, the Endlessly Raging Valley lacks the control over the Storm Empire that the Eternal Flame Clan has.

“I don’t recall us rescuing anyone from Eastern Port City, but I don’t try to learn every name,” Leader Liu tells him, his voice a little more sober. “Lady Pan might have records of such a thing.”

“Thank you,” Liu Jin says. “I will make sure to visit her before leaving.”

Liu Jin had given up on ever seeing anyone from Eastern Port City again, but seeing Yun Han alive had revived some old hopes.

“You speak of your impending release with far too much freedom,” Leader Liu says.

“My men and I are supposed to be roaming the countryside looking for you,” Liu Jin points out. “Even the City Lord will notice something if too much time passes without hearing any news from us. Releasing my men and I is inevitable.”

Leader Liu takes a deep breath before marching ahead, his steps a little louder.

“You are a very annoying man. Has anyone told you that?”

“More times than you’d think.”

“I very much doubt that’s possible.”

~~~

“Many thanks, doctor. I think I feel the medicine working already,” Elder Liu says, making Liu Jin smile.

“You flatter me, but the effects will take at least a few minutes to manifest,” Liu Jin says. “Bear in mind that while the medicine helps deal with many of your ailments, it does not remove the underlying causes. Even if you feel well, you should not push yourself.”

“Suddenly, Commander Qing makes a great deal of sense,” Leader Liu says, giving his father a long look. Elder Liu laughs.

“Oh, don’t think badly of me, son. You made me worry all the time when you were a child leading attacks on the scoundrels that tried to attack our village. It is only fair that I make you worry a little now that I’m old.”

Leader Liu scoffs. “I was hardly a child.”

“You protected your village from bandits?” Liu Jin asks him. “Is that how you came to join the Brotherhood of Thunder, Leader Liu?”

“It is how I founded the Brotherhood,” Leader Liu says. “The Black Dragon’s rise caused a lot of chaos. Many bandit groups sought to take advantage of it, but my friends and I showed them we were no easy prey.”

“Bah, don’t listen to him. At the most, they beat back a few flea-ridden dogs.” Elder Liu’s smile fades. “Of course, things changed once Murong Bang took over, and not for the better. I am glad my daughter never got to see it.”

Liu Jin hums. “You mentioned her before. You said she inherited your condition. What type of person was she?”

It is not the most subtle Liu Jin has ever been, but subtle has never been his strong suit. Even if it was, how can he be expected to be subtle here when he is in front of the family he never knew he had?

Leader Liu, who glares at him with so much suspicion, is his uncle. Would he be as suspicious if he knew the truth?

Elder Liu, who smiles so kindly, is his grandfather. What would he say if he knew his daughter gave birth to a child, and that child is now before him? Would he be happy? Or would the shock be too much for his frail body?

“You pry into matters that are none of your business,” Leader Liu tells him.

“Oh, don’t be rude, son. I hardly need an excuse to talk about my daughter,” Elder Liu says. “She was the sweetest person one could ever know,” Elder Liu says, smiling fondly. “When I was young, I resented my lack of talent in cultivation, but she never allowed her condition to sour her life. She was the sort of person who couldn’t help light up whatever place she was in.”

Liu Jin tries to imagine her. Considering the state his father must have been in when he met her, his mother would have needed to be the sort of person.

“I see,” Liu Jin says, trying to control his smile. “She sounds lovely.”

“She was,” Elder Liu says. “Even her husband, Doctor Jiang, couldn’t be sad in her presence.”

Leader Liu crosses his arms and snorts. “He was a gloomy bastard who couldn’t even cultivate. I don’t know what she saw in him.”

Leader Liu is completely prepared for his father bopping him in the head.

“That’s the man your sister chose as her husband you’re talking about. I’ll not allow you to question her choices like that,” Elder Liu says. He then looks at his hand with some surprise. “Huh, I think I am starting to feel some life return to these old bones. I really have to thank you, doctor. My joints have been hurting whenever there is a storm lately, and I felt a big one coming. I’m not sure how well I would have endured without this medicine.”

Liu Jin perks up.

“A storm, you say?”

~~~

The storm rages around him.

“My lord, this is a very poor idea,” Lei Kong yells at him through the rain, the wind, and the thunder.

“On the contrary,” Liu Jin says. He is standing at the very top of the highest plateau. His eyes look at nothing but the thunderclouds above him. “This is a very logical idea.”

Elemental attunement is obtained by meditating and communing with an element. If Liu Jin wants to gain greater mastery over lightning, he must study it more intimately.

“I can use lightning Qi to turn my body into a lightning rod. The thunder will strike me, but it will simply pass through my body and into the rock below. As I understand it, the first masters of lightning also stood in thunderstorms."

“Because they had no one to teach them, my lord!” Lei Kong screams at him. “Once the process was streamlined, there was no need for… for insanity!”

“I am happy you can say that sort of thing to my face now. You have really grown.”

“My lord, that sort of praise does not make me happy at all!”

And yet, Lei Kong makes no attempt to knock him out and drag him back to the Brotherhood’s hideout. On some level, he understands that Liu Jin must do this.

Liu Jin smiles as he focuses lightning Qi around his body.

If a normal person stands in the middle of a thunderstorm, there is no guarantee lightning will strike him. Why should nature care about his wants and needs? Why should the world bend to his whims?

However, Liu Jin is a cultivator.

If he screams at the world enough, the world has no choice but to answer. As Liu Jin’s lightning surges into the sky, heaven strikes him with nature’s fury.

It is a curious experience.

The lightning passes through his body in less than a second, leaving him with his hair standing on end but no lasting damage. In that fraction of a second, Liu Jin holds the full power of a lightning bolt inside his body. It is wilder than any river and more furious than any fire. It is power both dazzling and blinding. It refuses to be contained in a vessel as small as himself and leaves him for the comfort of the earth.

“...My lord?”

“I am fine,” Liu Jin says, breathing heavily. Something shines in his eyes. “You might want to step back.”

The storm still rages.

~~~