~~~

Liu Jin walks into Rainstorm City, and the city grows darker and colder in his wake.

Lei Kong and Ten Zichun are with the soldiers outside. Soaring Feather has left to carry a message to the Brotherhood of Thunder. Considering the eagle’s speed, Leader Liu has surely read the letter by now and is panicking about it.

There are more soldiers in the city than usual. None look like the lazy, drunken fools City Lord Lei kept around his manor. From the quality of their Qi to their bearing, they are completely different. Some have similar features to Lei Kong and the City Lord. They are probably members of the Lei Clan sent from Thunder Blade Fortress. They might even be the ones who killed the citizens of Drizzle Town.

They are not Liu Jin’s concern right now. Even City Lord Lei matters little.

Liu Jin understood who his real target should be the moment he got close to the city. He walks through the streets of Rainstorm City, and none dares stop him. Even the soldiers of the Lei Clan hide away from him. When Liu Jin enters one of the overly bright, alcohol-scented casinos, the people start fleeing the place by the dozen.

All but one.

Han waits for him on the other side of a casino table. There is a roulette wheel still spinning there. Han waits until it stops to look up and wave at him.

“I was wondering how long it’d take you to get here,” Han says.

“You had the people of Drizzle Town killed.”

The lights in the room dim as Liu Jin speaks. Had his aura not already made everyone but him and Han flee the premises, someone would have fainted right there and then.

“I did,” Han replies, not showing even an ounce of fear. “I figured that would get your attention. City Lord Lei was not so sure. You have him convinced you’re just a coward, but I knew better. You fought against me in the Eastern Port City Tournament despite knowing I was looking for an excuse to maim you. Cowardice has never been a flaw of yours.”

Liu Jin tilts his head slightly as he looks at Han.

The last time they met, Han had unsuccessfully tried to murder him. However, the Han that had easily been fought off by him and Lei Kong is not the same as the creature that sits before him. He is at ease with himself. Confident. Almost smug. He is even bringing up Eastern Port City, whereas the mere mention of his past would have annoyed him before.

Curious.

“The Lei Clan broke you out. I already figured out that much,”

“Correct, but if asked about it, they will deny it and say I broke out on my own.” Han snorts. “As if the general cared about something as stupid as plausible deniability. Idiots, but they are useful idiots right now.”

Liu Jin frowns. His Qi thirsts for violence, yet he forces himself to take a seat in front of Han.

“If we fight and you win, the City Lord will be rid of me, leaving the Lei Clan free to go after Lei Kong,” Liu Jin surmises. “If we fight and you lose, the City Lord will say I started a brawl in his city and killed his people, leaving him no choice but to put me down. Is that the plan?”

“Correct,” Han says, giving the wheel a spin. “It is impossible for people like us to fight in a place like this and not get others caught in it. That’s why you have been flaring your aura so menacingly all this time, isn’t it? You’re trying to scare away everyone in the city.”

Liu Jin nods. If the City Lord’s soldiers try to stop the people from fleeing, his men have orders to intervene. That’s why he left them in front of the city gates.

“Even if that works, it won’t matter. The City Lord will claim you went crazy regardless.” Han snorts. “Of course, that is only if you win. I have no intention of losing.”

“I never imagined you would.”

“I’m supposed to tell you there are twenty members of the Lei Clan in the City Lord’s house right now,” Han says. “They’re prepared to take your woman hostage the moment our fight starts. Should you win, they are the ones who will attack you.”

“I am aware,” Liu Jin says. “I sensed them the moment I entered the city.”

Han hums. “You do not care?”

“I believe the Lei Clan will have twenty fewer members should they try anything. Mei is nowhere near as merciful or forgiving as I.”

“I figured.”

The wheel stops spinning. It lands on zero.

“Why are you here?” Liu Jin asks. “Why this?”

Han’s face twists with rage. His aura flares like jagged knives.

“You dare to ask that after wounding the very core of my very being?!” He shouts. “I am here to kill you! Once I do, once you no longer exist, the wound will be gone, and I will become a more perfect version of myself.”

“I see.” Liu Jin’s frown deepens. The logic behind Han’s words is not wrong, yet… “So that’s the answer you arrived at.”

“You speak as if there could be another one!” The knives around Han howl and cut into the table, spilling the tokens to the floor. “Every day after you let me go, it hurt! When I walked. When I breathed. When I slept. It all hurt!”

Han stops and takes a deep breath. His aura relaxes. The knives stop screeching.

“But when I think of ending you, it all becomes better,” Han says, his voice almost a hiss. “I think clearly. I see clearly. I know once I kill you, I’ll go beyond.”

There is an almost maddened zeal in Han’s eyes. It focuses his anger and gives it a goal. A purpose.

“Do you want to know how Xiao Nan died?”

Liu Jin’s expression does not change, yet the air around him stills.

“What?”

“You were always pathetically following him everywhere,” Han says, reaching to pick the small white ball from roulette and crushing it. “I figured you would be curious about how he died. You must have thought about it once or twice.”

Liu Jin says nothing. A table cracks next to them.

“The general once had three Heaven Realm cultivators at his side, all soldiers handpicked by him. One of them was the son of Lei Leji, the Lei Clan’s leader. The night Eastern Port City fell, Xiao Nan fought all three and killed two. Well, what else can you expect from the prodigy of Eastern Port City?” Han shrugs his shoulders, a mocking smirk on his face. “But the third one, that one killed him. He tore him apart so savagely that there wasn’t a body left to show the general. I think you already met him.”

One face appears in Liu Jin’s mind. He instantly knows the name Han is about to utter.

“Bright Sword,” Han says. He leans in, putting his elbows on the table. “Tell me, how does it feel knowing you were face to face with the person who killed Xiao Nan?”

Liu Jin takes a deep breath.

His fist smashes into Han’s face, shattering the room around them and sending Han flying into the wall. As he crashes into it, Han twists his body in midair, his leg drawing an arc that fires off a blade of Qi toward Liu Jin. Just by taking shape, it breaks the entire casino in half, exposing them to the light of day as the ceiling cracks like an egg.

Before the Qi blade has cleared a single yard, Liu Jin and Han have already left the crumbling building. Han’s attack carves a line all the way to the city wall, destroying dozens of streets and houses. The dust has not even finished clearing when Han fires off another blade. The sound it makes as it displaces the air is almost like a scream.

Three gigantic snakes made of Qi rise and catch the Qi blade with their fangs, squeezing and shattering it like glass.

[Ground Contraction]

Neither the dust nor the wreckage stop Liu Jin from knowing where Han is. His Qi screams far too loudly to go unnoticed. Liu Jin appears right in front of Han, the aura around his body morphing into the head of a snake, ready to bite down on Han.

“None of that!”

The ground breaks. Even the clouds above them are split in half as Han’s Qi fires multiple furious knives, forcing Liu Jin to move back. Han and Liu Jin end up standing on opposite roofs of barely standing houses.

“I have to take him away from the city to stop people from getting caught in our crossfire,” Han mocks him by pointing out his intentions. “Did you really think I’d let you get away with that a second time?”

Liu Jin does not answer. He merely keeps his gaze trained on Han, trying to figure out how to best approach this fight.

“You have done your best to scare away people, but what does that matter?” Han shouts, spreading his arms to gesture at the devastation just a few techniques from him have caused. “How many people who didn’t run away do you think I killed just now? Even those who ran aren’t safe. Unless they can suddenly be ten miles away from this city, they’re all just collateral damage waiting to happen.”

Han smirks.

“And not just mine from my techniques but yours as well, right?”

His hand comes down.

In a fraction of a second, Liu Jin’s Qi snakes rise up to catch and break the incoming blade. In that same fraction of a second, Han is already mere feet away from Liu Jin. He thrusts his hand like a spear at Liu Jin’s face. Liu Jin leans out of the way, but the slightest brush is enough to leave a deep cut on his cheek.

“Did you block instead of dodging because there were people in that direction?” Han yells as he keeps attacking him. Every swing of his hand slices a different house. Each jab makes the air screech.

Liu Jin does not reply. His aura takes the shape of dozens of snakes that seek to overwhelm Han.

“No poison this time?!” Han’s aura is like a hundred sharpened knives that stab every snake that gets close to him. He doesn’t even seem to be doing it consciously. His aura is just reacting to the danger. “Are you scared you won’t be able to control how it spreads?”

The tip of Liu Jin’s ear is cut off. One of his sleeves is sliced. The injuries heal immediately, but it is telling that there are no such wounds on Han’s body.

“Is that why you won’t use lightning? Are you really so arrogant?” Han’s Qi surges violently, and Liu Jin sees he has no choice but to dodge his next attack. The Qi blade that follows tears through several streets.

City Lord Lei, fool that he is, probably never realized how much damage they’d be doing to his city when he agreed to this plan.

“If you use large attacks, you risk hurting others. If you try to run away, I’ll chase after the people instead of you. You cannot fight me at a distance because you fear the collateral damage from my attacks. You cannot fight me at close range because then you’re under the effect of my Dao.” Han’s grin grows as he lists off Liu Jin’s problems. “Remember that?”

Liu Jin does not have the luxury to wince as one of Han’s attacks slices his side. The cut is shallow, but it hurts.

With every clash, the truth of Han’s words becomes clear. Han’s attacks gradually get closer to their mark, while Liu Jin’s counterattacks become less and less effective. He can hold his own, but that’s not nearly enough, and his efforts to limit the damage to the city only hamper him further. Liu Jin had hoped City Lord Lei would order his soldiers to interfere upon seeing the damage Han is causing, but it seems that won’t happen, and Lei Kong and Ten are busy at the gates with the soldiers, helping the people escape.

It’s fine, Liu Jin tells himself. He ignores Han’s taunts and his crazed laughter. He ignores the pain and only focuses on the task at hand.

He just needs one opening.

“It’s over!” Han yells as his leg is about to come down on his head. The Qi about to be unleashed will split the entire city block in half.

Liu Jin does not dodge.

He faces the attack head-on, creating a dense layer of Qi around himself, multiple snakes layered on top of another. Offense and defense clash, canceling each other out. For a moment, it’s just Liu Jin and Han before one another, Han still in midair.

A needle appears between Liu Jin’s fingers. A thin layer of white poisonous Qi shines around it.

He strikes.

Han had only been half-right earlier. Liu Jin did refrain from more overt displays of poison out of fear of it spreading too far out. The level of poison required to hamper Han would also kill several lesser people.

However, Liu Jin also refrained from more subtle displays of poison precisely for this moment. To lower Han’s guard. Liu Jin has been building up poisonous Qi inside of him all this time, and now it’s all focused on a single needle. At this distance, in this position, Han’s Dao cannot save him. Even a single graze will turn the tide in his favor.

“You arrogant ass!”

The air screeches. It is as if a picture were being torn in half. Liu Jin’s aim is suddenly off by a wide margin, and Han’s leg comes down hard on his shoulder. Liu Jin winces as the earth cracks under him. He dashes away, but the damage is done. Blood, Liu Jin’s blood, drips to the ground. The wound on his shoulder is deep.

“I told you!” Han roars at him. “I am aware of it now! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! But I know I can do it! Did you think it’d be the same as before?”

He is panting. Despite his words, whatever just happened took a toll on him.

And yet…

Han’s aura feels somehow sharper.

“You told me the world had made me an ugly thing! Well, look at you! Binding yourself to weak creatures you don’t even know and hampering yourself for their benefit! It’s unsightly! Do you understand? As long as I’m myself and you’re yourself, there is no way you can win against me!”

“I can’t stand you.”

That puts a stop to Han. For the first time, Liu Jin is glaring at him.

“Logically, I know you have gone through much. Perhaps, you had no other choice but to become what you are. And yet, I see you, and I think what a waste it is for you to be the one that survived,” Liu Jin says tonelessly, his aura simmering around him, working to heal his wounds. “I see you, and all I see is a meaningless, hollow existence.”

Han spits to the side.

“Meaningless? You think you get to decide that?! You’re so arrogant it’s sickening! You can’t stand me? Fine! I can’t stand you either! The world’s full of people who can’t stand each other!” Han yells. His knives scream alongside him. “That’s why we do this!”

The anger in Liu Jin’s fades, replaced by a sad smile. That, too, only lasts for a moment.

Only resolution remains.

“I know.”

The battle to death begins anew in the crumbling streets of Rainstorm City.

~~~