~~~

The battlefield is no place for a lady.

Lu Mei’s mother would often tell her that. After all, true power is the ability to enforce one’s will without needing to lift a finger. If things have gotten to the point where she needs to personally enter combat, she has clearly erred in some way, and a proper lady does not err.

Lu Mei has done her best to live up to that teaching, and for a time, it was easy. Bei Hong’s existence guaranteed that. A true brute without any complex thought beyond the target of his next punch. He didn’t mind being used by Lu Mei because it just meant more things to hit, be they lecherous would-be suitors or innocent victims. Theirs was a nice, simple arrangement that bloomed into true friendship, not that either of them would admit it.

Her life has changed a lot since those days.

Violence, Lu Mei muses as wind and fire rage around her, seems to have become a commonality in her life ever since she met Qing Jin. Not that it wasn’t before, but now she has to actively partake in it instead of watching from the sidelines with an amused smile.

It is not that she dislikes it, Lu Mei amends as soldiers and beasts alike are destroyed. The lucky ones are merely blown away by the winds. The rest burn, caught in a tornado of flames. If Lu Mei has to be honest with herself, she quite enjoys this. No amount of clever maneuvering and manipulation quite matches up to the feeling of simply letting her flames burn.

To use power as it is meant to be used… Well, it is rather exhilarating.

Still, no matter how good it feels to use power in the way it is meant to be used, it is the principle of the thing! Once again, she is in the middle of a massive brawl. An actual war this time. To his credit, it is not as if Qing Jin actively seeks situations like this…

No. Actually, that is exactly what he does.

Really, it was inevitable that he’d once again find himself in the center of it all. While everyone was fighting, Qing Jin, along with Bright Sword and Lady Bai, somehow broke into the imperial palace. Being carried around by a much stronger cultivator is not the most dignified thing, but Lu Mei is sure the stories will forget that part. When telling this tale, people will only remember that he was the first to enter the Storm Dragon Palace. His reputation will benefit from it.

Assuming, of course, that Qing Jin survives today.

“Lady Lu! I cannot find everyone!” Lei Kong says as he appears in front of her. “Perhaps it would be better if-”

“No,” she cuts him off sharply. “One person accomplishes nothing! If you wish to help him, you will do this!”

The now-head of the Lei Clan looks at her for an entirely too long second before dashing off to follow her orders.

Lu Mei sighs in relief.

When entering General He Bin’s territory, Murong Bang had split his forces. That is why Lei Kong and the men he brought from the Lei Clan had not been traveling with them. Only now that all of Murong Bang’s forces have converged in a single place is Lei Kong in a position to help Qing Jin.

However, she is not Qing Jin. Lei Kong does not owe her the same fanatical loyalty, and she is nowhere near comfortable ordering around a cultivator in the Earth Realm.

Unfortunately, there is no other way. When Lei Kong noticed what was happening to Qing Jin, he’d been desperate to rush to his side. Thankfully, Lu Mei had been able to get to him before he worked up the nerve to break into the palace. That would have helped no one. Still, for all that she can lean on his loyalty to Qing Jin to get him to do what she wants, it’s far more unstable than she’d like.

Lu Mei breathes a sigh of relief when Lei Kong appears with Huang Shing barely seconds later before dashing off again.

“That guy is really fast,” Huang Shing says, once more showing his growing understanding of the obvious. “He said something about rescuing Brother Jin?”

“That is the plan,” Lu Mei tells him while blasting several soldiers.

Huang Shing whistles, impressed. “You have gotten better at that. Feng Zhi’s flame is still stronger, but that sort of goes without saying.

“I can settle for not quite as good as the Young Master of the Eternal Flame Clan.” For now. “Can I count on your support?”

“I don’t think he’ll need any help, but I don’t mind lending a hand,” Huang Shing replies.

He sounds utterly unconcerned. Lu Mei is torn between wanting to slap him for being so careless and being proud of Qing Jin for being able to instill such loyalty in others without even trying.

“Pleasing as it is to know how much you trust him, I want you to take a moment to feel his Qi,” Lu Mei says instead.

“I feel it.” Huang Shing quirks his brow. “What is weird about it? It feels as strong as ever.”

“Have you felt it moving at all since he entered the palace?”

Lu Mei is too worried to relish the shocked realization that appears on Huang Shing’s face. Ever since Qing Jin and the others entered the palace, their Qi has been completely static. The same can be said of everyone else inside that place. No one there is moving, and that does not make any sense.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“I’ll be glad to help Brother Qing.”

Lu Mei takes a deep breath when Lei Kong brings Fan Bingbing. While she cannot blame Qing Jin’s servant for his choice of help, she is not entirely pleased by it. Out of the many people around Qing Jin, Fan Bingbing might be her least favorite for reasons even she cannot fully grasp.

“Will this be all of us?” Fan Bingbing asks her.

“Unfortunately so,” Lu Mei says. Other people she can think of are either not strong enough or not present.

Of all the stupid times for Bei Hong to go into isolation training!

“What about Feng Zhi?” Huang Shing asks.

“That seems unwise,” Fan Bingbing says.

“Unfortunately so,” Lu Mei says. “I am fairly sure I could convince my cousin to aid us, but getting close to him is the issue.”

As if to reinforce their opinion, a golden explosion goes off in the distance. Feng Zhi’s roar follows it. Under other circumstances, Lu Mei would shake her head. Her cousin is far too wound up for his own good. What is he even doing with that girl of his if he still needs the rush of battle to truly unwind?

“I don’t know,” Huang Shing says, frowning. “I think I could get to him.”

“There is no time,” Lu Mei says, her voice rising along with her frustration. “If we-”

“Something is wrong.”

Lu Mei’s ire at Fan Binging for interrupting her is quickly doused when she sees what the small girl is pointing at.

“Oh.”

The palace is glowing. Wild purple energy rages around it, quivering and pulsing.

Like the beating of the heart.

The last thing Lu Mei hears is Murong Bang’s mad laughter as the purple light engulfs it all.

~~~

“Unhand me, you cur! The prince of the Storm Dragon Empire will not fall like this!”

The indignant shout echoes throughout the long corridor, but no one answers. A vein bulges on Qing Guo’s forehead as the seconds pass by.

“Stop ignoring me!” he yells. He would have flailed his arms in anger, but such is impossible for him right now.

“I fail to see what type of answer I could give,” Liu Jin says after giving his cousin a long glance. “For one, I cannot exactly unhand you. I do not have my hands on you at all.”

“That is nothing but a vile sophism!” Qing Guo shouts, and not without cause. Liu Jin might not be touching Qing Guo, but it is his snake-shaped projection that has its tail wrapped around him and is dragging him through the corridor.

“If I let you go, you will try to escape,” Liu Jin says instead of acknowledging his cousin’s point.

“You came here with Murong Bang!” Qing Guo points out. “Why wouldn’t I try to escape?”

Liu Jin considers this.

“Fair enough,” Liu Jin says. “Still, I would appreciate it if you stopped trying. Not that you could because most of your limbs are immobilized even without the snake holding you, but carrying you around would be more uncomfortable for me without it. This is for the best.”

Qing Guo stares at him.

“You’re saying those words as though you were being completely reasonable! Do you even realize you’re asking this prince to be fine with being a hostage?! Who would be fine with that?!”

“I could paralyze your tongue,” Liu Jin tells him. “You know that, right?”

Qing Guo wisely stays silent after that.

It is for the best, yet it is also more than a little sad. Liu Jin cannot help but feel regret as he looks at his cousin’s pitiful form. Under happier circumstances, the two would have grown up together. He doubts their relationship would have been quite like that of Xiao Nan and Xiao Fang, but they would have been friends all the same. Family.

Instead, his cousin rightly distrusts every word that comes out of his mouth and looks at him with fear and anger. None of his attempts to explain the situation to him after subduing him worked. What’s worse is that Liu Jin seriously doubts his cousin will ever trust him.

For them, it just might be too late.

“Argh! Enough! Stay back! Shoo! Keep that filthy beast away from me!”

Liu Jin blinks.

His cousin is doing his best to inch his head away from the dog trying to lick his face. A hard task seeing as how he is completely immobilized.

More to the point…

“He is not a filthy beast,” Liu Jin corrects him, frowning slightly. “He is a dog.”

Qing Guo looks at the furless pink creature.

“Dog?” He echoes disbelievingly. “This is no dog! This is… a thing!”

His dog’s ears drop. A pathetic whine escaped its mouth. Liu Jin has to wonder how much of that is due to the influence his emotions have on the creature. In fact, the dog might have approached Qing Guo precisely because Liu Jin was thinking about him.

All the same…

“You’re being awfully rude right now.”

“I refuse to budge on this issue!” Qing Guo insists. “I might be beaten and a prisoner, but that looks little better than those creatures made by the man from the Death Fashioning Scripture.”

“It looks considerably better,” Liu Jin says, offended. The dog barks in agreement. “I took away all the waste material and redundancy. I even gave it the correct number of body parts.”

Qing Guo blinks. “You mean it is actually one of those creatures?! I was exaggerating for effect! How could you stand being close to one of those?”

Liu Jin raises an eyebrow. “You’re the one allied with the Death Fashioning Scripture. That should tell you something about General He Bin.”

“And you’re allied with Murong Bang.”

Liu Jin clicks his tongue. “Being allied to that man really does undercut any sort of persuasive power I might have.”

“Of course it does!” Qing Guo yells.

“All the same, things would really go better if you believed me.”

“As if I would ever believe all the things you said earlier!” Qing Guo replies. “How could I ever believe General He Bin is anything but a loyal retainer of my father?! Then there’s what you said about Lady Su!”

“She’s a potentially dangerous spirit that has taken over the body of a friend of mine,” Liu Jin says, repeating what he told his cousin before, not that he expects doing so will make his words any more believable.

Sure enough, his cousin rolls his eyes.

“That’s completely ridiculous! Lady Su is a proper lady! An innocent flower I should be protecting right now. She must be so lost and scared with the palace under attack.”

Liu Jin takes a moment to think about Su An. Then, about how powerful a spirit might need to be to overwhelm her personality.

“No, I don’t think that’s the case at all,” he says dryly.

“You don’t know her! I…”

His cousin trails off before finishing. A puzzled expression appears on his face. There is no need for Liu Jin to ask him what is wrong.

He feels it too.

Something pulses. It beats.

Everything does.

~~~