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The crowd didn’t listen, but they kept their distance once Gui Zu picked up a stray broom and began wielding it like a staff. He pushed, prodded, and slapped the most brazen of my neighbors with martial techniques, forming a space between himself and the angry mob being led by Jian Yi.

The girl had nothing but fury in her eyes as she shouted and screamed for Gui Zu to move. My Flame fixated on her. She’d been the cause of all this, formed this rabble together to hunt down a defenseless woman and her child.

Heated anger filled my soul, fueling fresh Frenzy as I engaged my [Devil’s Shadow] technique. I let the immense power of my Dantian be known as I poured Frenzy into my reflexes and [Fear the Flame].

Aiming for where Yu Li was cowering just behind Gui Zu, I leapt into the air soaring high above the crowd. I plummeted fist first, Frenzy surging and landed just in front of Jian Yi with a resounding Boom! as my fist hit the ground.

“ENOUGH!”

Concrete and asphalt flew high into the air and rained down like hail as my impact left a ten-foot-wide crater in the middle of the square. Stunned silence took hold as the combination of my fear aura and Qi-accented Frenzy radiated into the crowd.

Fear gripped them and more than a few people turned tail and ran, fearing their quick demise at the hands of the Core Realm cultivator they had just pissed the hell off. But one person amongst them stood against me unfazed, her chin lifted defiantly as always.

“Nice entrance,” she said. “I’m sure we all appreciate the fresh damage you’ve—”

I snatched her by the collar, lifting her high off the ground.

“What the hell is this shit, Jian Yi?” I bellowed into her face. “I told you what would happen if you—”

“Why don’t you stop and see why it happened, Chun!” Jian Yi shouted right back at me and then thrust a piece of paper in my face. “That girl with the metal hand showed up looking for you. And of course, when she didn’t find you, because you’ve gone and pissed off to who knows where, she left one of these for all of us and then wrecked the place so that we’d never forget.”

I tossed her back down to the ground and then snatched the paper from her, scanning it briefly.

To the One who has chosen death and the fools who have chosen to follow him:

This day marks seven days until you will face your destiny and suffer your fate at my hands. Run like a coward and fail to appear, and your fellow Terrans will suffer the retribution of both myself and Honorable Li Fet.

Take heed, for my wrath knows no bounds.

Young Master Hein of the Silver Leaf Clan

Frigging Hein and Zu Tien, I thought. I’d just killed a woman far more vile than the both of them put together, yet still they irked me more. I guess that’s just how things were when it got personal.

And speaking of personal…

“So you get this letter and then decide to take this out on Yu Li?” I focused on Jian Yi as she picked herself up off the tarmac. “Give me one good reason not to bury the whole damn lot of you right now!”

“How about because we don’t deserve it,” she said defiantly.

“What?” This girl had to be joking. “You were just running her down and about to—!”

“Because she went and made things worse!” Jian Yi said. “The both of you have! This block has never seen so much turmoil and chaos since you started making trouble. And now you’ve gone and left us all to fend for ourselves? What did you expect us to do? Sit on our hands and wait for your almighty return? Suffer our fates in silence while Master Hein prepares our demise?”

The crowd murmured at that and I could feel the tide was already turning against me. And deep down I couldn’t really blame them either. I was doing shit none of them could possibly understand and all for their benefit too. But it sure didn’t look that way right now.

“It’s not like that.”

“Isn’t it now?” She cocked her head at me. “Sure could have fooled me.”

More of my neighbors joined in the murmuring, some shouting outright curses at me, not a single drop of lemonade in the bunch.

“Other people might be afraid of you, Chun, but not me,” Jian Yi said, looking me dead in the eye. “You can make your threats all you want, but I’m done risking my future on the likes of you.” She then paused a moment looking down at the crater. “No matter how damn strong you’ve become.”

As she said the words, I instantly felt the mood in the crowd change. Fear turning instantly to anger and defiance as she bolstered them with confidence and resolve. But I sensed something more as well.

Something familiar.

Staring down at Jian Yi, I spotted something different in her deep brown eyes.

A stirring of something.

Like Frenzy almost, but not quite.

There, buried deep in her soul were the beginnings of a smoldering ember.

The first spark of a Frenzied Flame.

Holy shit, I thought. No wonder she had the balls to stand up to me.

She was unkindled!

I looked at the crowd. She’d turned them all against me. This wasn’t a battle I could win by brute force alone. I could crush her like an ant, but that wasn’t the point anymore. Especially not now, knowing what she truly was. I’d simply become a tyrant in the peoples’ eyes if I did. Perhaps the Flame had been trying to tell me this all along.

“We need to go talk,” I said. “Alone. Right now.”

“Alone?” She scoffed out a laugh. “Why? So you can try to kill me?”

I looked at her with [Struggler’s Resolve] and triggered my [Frenzied Flame]. “If I said yes, would you still come anyway?”

Her eyes narrowed and I could sense the defiance building within her. It wasn’t exactly a test of uncertain death, but it was close. The crowd grew silent waiting for her answer. I could sense her ember glowing brighter until finally she folded her arms.

“Fine,” she said and then turned back to the crowd. “All of you. Leave the girl and her child be, understand? I will go speak with him now.” Amazingly the mob backed off, like all the hatred and anger had been suddenly sucked out of the room. She then turned back to me. “Whatever this is, it’d better be good. Because everyone is sick to death of your shit.”

She parted the crowd as she walked away, heading towards the side streets of the square. I gave a glance back to Gui Zu and Yu Li to make sure they were alright.

“Get her out of here, Gui Zu.”

The big man nodded. “Already on it.”

“Chun, don’t do anything stupid, okay?” Yu Li said in a hushed whisper, rocking Su Ling who was surprisingly asleep somehow. “These people have all lost their minds.”

“I can see that,” I said. “Don’t worry. I’m just going to try and talk some sense into her.”

It was clear the balance of power had shifted dramatically since I’d moved out. No longer was Jian Yi’s crew just a minority. She’d played another chess move, getting the entire community on her side. And maybe I had more to do with that than she did. Going against her now would be going against the very people I was trying to save.

And she knew I couldn’t do that.

Perhaps Jian Yi had grown brazen not because she didn’t fear death, but because she just no longer feared me. Or no longer feared my retribution anyway. Or was it that smoldering ember inside of her causing it as well? Either way, my fists were no longer the answer here.

I followed where Jian Yi had wandered off to and found her half a block over, out of earshot of the crowd but close enough to keep an eye on everyone. Tensions were still high, but surprisingly everyone was holding fire for the moment, just like Jian Yi had commanded.

“So speak,” Jian Yi said. “You’re the one who wanted to talk, right?”

The girl truly had no fear of me. It pissed me off, but I had to be smart about this.

“Why the hell did you sic that mob on Yu Li and her baby? Are you nuts? Are you really trying to kill her? Do you have any idea what I would have done to you and everyone else if you did?”

“I didn’t sic anyone on her,” Jian Yi said. “She’s the one who nearly got herself killed by riling everyone up.”

“How?”

“Yu Li ripped up that letter right in front of that one-handed woman and she wrecked the whole square because of it. Yu Li has herself to blame for them chasing her after that. She’s damn lucky that woman didn’t just kill her on the spot!”

Damn it, Yu Li. And you warn me about doing something stupid?

“But I might as well call it your fault,” she continued. “Because it’s your nonsense filling her head that made her do something like that.”

“That still doesn’t justify what you’ve done, Jian Yi. Because you clearly didn’t try to stop them either, did you?”

“Are you kidding me?” she shouted back, her ember glowing brightly. “What do you think I was doing? I was trying to stop them!”

I blurted out a caustic laugh. “How? By leading the mob to her?”

“No, the opposite,” she said emphatically. “And I was doing the best I could. I couldn’t control them after what she did. People were too pissed off!”

“Jian Yi, I already warned you about messing with Yu Li. You just risked all those people’s lives by—!”

“Me risking their lives?” she fired back. “You mean the way you are by challenging Hein?”

“It’s not the same at all!” I said, my Flame stirring. “I’m standing up to Hein, yes, but I’m not provoking him for a reaction like what you’re trying to do to me. Plus, a girl with a baby? Are you serious? That shit is way out of line! You’re lucky I don’t knock your damn head off just for messing with her the first time when you went and—actually, you know what?”

Curling a fist, I popped her swiftly in the jaw.

Whack!

It was a pulled punch, using as little force as possible, but still it was enough to knock Jian Yi off her feet and send a hand clasping her cheek in shock and pain. “Ow! Shit, Chun! What the hell?”

“That was for slapping my sister from before,” I said, pointing down at her. “And you know damn well you deserve it too!”

She glared up at me, holding her face for a moment, but she didn’t deny it either. Then, her ember stirring, she stood up on her own defiantly, lifting her chin.

“You feel better now?”

The little bitch...I was just about to lay into her again, when I stopped myself at the last second, realizing—like looking in a mirror—that she was unconsciously using a form of [Indifference] against me.

“No, I don’t feel better,” I said with a healthy dose of [Fear the Flame]. “I’d feel better beating the living shit out of you, but you’ve gone and made that highly inconvenient for me now. You know you got off light. If I would have reacted the night you hit her, I would have—”

“Alright, I get it!” she shouted, throwing her hands in the air. “Look, people do dumb shit when they feel like they don’t have any options, okay? And that’s basically what you did to all of us when you started this feud with Hein. None of us asked for this. We all just want to live in peace!”

I blew out a laugh and gestured to the mob. “You call this peace?”

“You know what I mean!”

I paused a moment as I sensed her ember stir again.

“Look, I know what I did to Yu Li before was wrong,” she said. “But I just didn’t think I could make you stop any other way at the time. You were marching us all off a damn cliff. And you weren’t willing to listen to anyone except yourself! And yes, I did it to provoke you into attacking me. But I was more willing to face your wrath alone, than for everyone to face Hein’s.”

I pondered that. Was that truly her plan?

“And you seriously thought that would work?”

“Well, it didn’t obviously,” she said with an eyeroll. “Anyway, I heard you the first time. I wasn’t messing with Yu Li anymore, but then she went and turned the whole block against her on her own. And whether you want to believe me or not, I honestly was trying to stop them from hurting her tonight.”

“That’s bullshit!” I said. “I know what I saw. You were out there leading the charge. And you were shouting for Gui Zu to move when he was trying to protect her.”

“I told you! I was trying to lead them away from her, you idiot!” she shouted. “And as for Gui Zu, I was telling him ‘get her away’ not move out of the way!” Her ember was burning brightly with conviction now. “I’m not a damn monster who wants to hurt a child, Chun. Who the hell does that? Did I slap Yu Li because I thought it would save my community from getting slaughtered by Hein and the rest of his family? Yes. But did I actually try to kill Yu Li and her baby by sending an angry mob after her? Hell no! I’m not the damn villain you’re trying to make me out to be. If anything you can blame yourself for what happened to Yu Li tonight, because you leaving is why everyone lost their shit and resorted to panic and fear and then dumped it all into anger while chasing Yu Li.”

I squinted at her, trying to decipher the truth. She was unkindled, so maybe she lacked control over her impulses at times like I did, but she didn’t seem to be trying to deceive me at all. And plus she didn’t fear me anymore so what reason would she have to lie to me anyway?

Had I indeed misinterpreted what I had seen when I entered the square? I was pretty pissed already, so maybe it was possible. Thinking back, she was telling them “no!” and to move “this way!”, like they were going the wrong direction. And I couldn’t actually hear what she was saying to Gui Zu either. All I could remember seeing was the anger in her eyes.

Anger that perhaps was meant to be directed at me.

Jian Yi then gave me a look that reminded me of [Struggler’s Resolve].

“You probably think I turned the whole neighborhood against you,” she said. “But I didn’t. After you disappeared people came looking to me on their own. Looking for answers. Answers I didn’t have. So we did the only thing we could do and tried to make amends for the crap you started when that woman showed up. But then Yu Li goes and does what she did and sets us right back to square one again.”

I heard the truth in her then and not just about what had happened tonight with Yu Li.

I heard the truth about what my absence had caused as well.

Shit, I thought. Everything came at a price. Even the sacrifice I was making to grow stronger to protect them all, had in the end turned them all against me.

Jian Yi then let out a sigh. “Honestly though, whether you’re here or not doesn’t matter anymore. Because after tonight we’re all screwed now thanks to you and Yu Li.”

I echoed her sigh. It seemed I’d been wrong about her motives and actions tonight, but still this wasn’t going the direction I wanted.

I needed a new approach.

“I want to show you something,” I said and began cycling my Frenzy in preparation of the [Faux Lightning] technique. “I realize I’ve been asking you to trust me blindly. Trust me to do something you don’t believe I can do, but I’ll prove to you now that I can.”

I wished I had started building up the technique earlier but I wouldn’t need to do much to get the point across. I waited thirty more seconds before releasing a blue lightning bolt into the night sky. It went off with a deafening boom of thunder and the crowd reacted with a collective gasp. Even Jian Yi flinched, backing away from me.

“You’ve seen the power of my raw strength, and now you know the extent of my inner strength as well. I will defeat Hein. I will claim this residence for us. I will make us free.”

Jian Yi just shook her head. “You really don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?”

“It’s not that I don’t trust that you can defeat Hein,” she said. “Quite the opposite now, actually, thanks to that over-the-top entrance of yours. And that’s the problem with you. You’re a frigging hothead who can’t think past your own damn nose!”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

She paused a moment and her eyes softened some. “You don’t think that I don’t like the idea of your dream, Chun? Free rent? No more harassment in the square? But it’s a fool’s dream, okay? Nails that stick up get hammered. And that’s all you’ll do to us by defeating Hein and forcing Li Fet to hand over his property in humiliation.”

“I get that,” I said. “But it’s—”

“But what?” she snapped. “There is no ‘but’, Chun! This is our reality. We need to learn how to adapt and survive in this new world. Not try to fight against it and die…like everyone else already did.”

Her words stuck a chord, and I sensed something shift inside her, a new stirring of her embers.

“You’re a driven woman, Jian Yi, and I respect that, perhaps more than you can even comprehend right now.” She had embers but I had no idea how to awaken someone’s unkindled Flame. Or even if I should. Especially as her vengeance might be fixed on me at the moment. But perhaps I could reach out to her in another way. The same way Threja reached out to me that first time. “Tell me what drives you. Tell me your [Sorrow and Pain].”

Her mouth came open as if in shock and her eyes teared up a little, but she was no longer looking at me. She was looking into her past now. The same way I had.

“I didn’t get taken right away,” she said, staring off into this distance. “My daddy was a soldier. We ran and hid. My whole family and I. I was too young to understand what was really going on then, but I remember everything vividly to this day. We lasted about a week. Even managed to kill a few cultivators somehow. With guns, I think. We met up with other families. Other people in the army. They all pulled together and tried to fight back. Against the monsters, against the invaders. But in the end, everyone just died. My parents were killed right in front of me, because they tried to fight. Instead of just submitting like they were told.”

My own Flame stirred at her words, and I sensed the glowing ember within her become a bit warmer.

“So now, fighting back is the last thing I want to do,” she continued. “I’ve seen people try it, but it just won’t work. And I can’t risk losing everyone I care about again, just for that.”

I nodded slowly as she finished speaking. And then like she was awakening from a dream, she blinked and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

“Ugh! What the hell was that? I hadn’t thought about all that stuff in years.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “We all have our reasons for being. I understand you now, Jian Yi. You want peace at the cost of freedom. And I guess I want the opposite…freedom at the cost of peace.”

She furrowed her brow in thought. “Yeah…I guess so.”

“We may want different things, but we don’t need to be at odds over it, Jian Yi. In the end I think we both want what’s best for our people, don’t we?”

She shrugged but nodded.

“I need to show you something else.”

“Please, no more,” she said. “You don’t need to go breaking up any more shit. I know you’re strong. You don’t have to keep proving it.”

“No,” I said and reached into my robes for the application form. “This is something far more powerful than any cultivation technique. And it’s probably what I should have shown you in the first place.”

She eyed me warily as she reached for the envelope. “What is it?”

“A way we can both achieve what we want,” I said. “Freedom and peace.”

She grew more curious at that and opened the envelope, straining her eyes in the dim street lighting to make out what was written on the paper.

“A Terran sect?” she said.

“It will give us the protection we need to survive as a people,” I said. “Once it’s established, anyone who joins instantly becomes a C-Class citizen. The cultivators trample over us now because we’re commoners and mortals. But under a sect, we’re protected by imperial law. If Hein’s family or Li Fet want retribution for their defeat, they’d have to take it up with me as the Warden, not any of you.”

“And you’re okay with that?” she said. “There are people far more powerful than Hein within his family. The Warden of the province just to name one.”

I shrugged with a smile of [Indifference]. “Don’t worry about me. I can hold my own. Plus, I got much bigger targets in my sights when it comes to opposition.”

She looked at me funny. “I’m starting to question your sanity again.”

I chuckled. “The point is, even if I’m dead and gone, you’d have the right to appoint whoever you wanted as your Warden. A whole martial sect even. So long as enough people join and chip in for funding, you can keep anyone from messing with you. Strength in numbers. That’s the play here.”

“This can’t be real,” she said, flipping the paper over in her hands. “Is it?”

“Not yet,” I said. “A few more details to figure out, but I’m working on it. Trust me when I say I’m taking a huge risk to pull this off. But it will all be worth it in the end.”

Her eyes narrowed. “How can this be so easy? A simple piece of paperwork and you can create a sect?”

“It’s not easy,” I said. “Or cheap.”

I pointed out Bo Ren’s signature on the form and her eyes grew wide.

“50 Taels! You paid 50 Taels of silver for this? How did you even get that much money?”

“Like I said. I’m taking a lot of risks.”

She looked up at me with new eyes, a look I hadn’t seen before and for the first time ever, I sensed a trickle of lemonade.

“You’re right,” she said, putting the form back in the envelope and then handing it back to me. “You should have led with this.”

With that she turned and began walking away.

“Hey,” I called to her. “Where are you going?”

“To go talk to my—” She then paused. “To go talk to our people,” she said. “They won’t understand any of this, especially coming from a hothead like you, but I think I’ll be able to convince them to get behind you.”

I was rocked back on my heels at her sudden change. Perhaps I hadn’t been giving her enough credit this entire time. I gave her a nod. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” she said, rubbing her jaw but giving me a smile. “The neighborhood is still very angry.”

* * *

True to her word, Jian Yi waded into the sea of angry neighbors, righted a toppled table and then stood atop it to deliver her address to the crowd. I stood on the sidelines with Gui Zu and Yu Li, waiting eagerly to hear what she was going to say.

“Listen up, everyone,” she began and the crowd instantly silenced for her. “I’ve said a lot of crazy stuff about Chun. And while most of it remains true, I was wrong about one thing about him. As crazy, reckless, and unstable as he is, I now believe he does indeed have the best interest of us all at heart.”

“Holy crap, Chun,” Yu Li whispered to me. “What the hell did you say to her?”

“Shhh,” I told her.

“I’ve met privately with Chun,” Jian Yi said. “And he has shared his full vision with me. I admit I didn’t understand it at first. But now that I do, I’m fully behind it. And I want us all to be as well.” A whisper of gasps and shock went throughout the crowd, but amazingly there wasn’t a single voice of dissent and just like before all the anger seemed to be sucked from the air. “It’s humbling to admit you were wrong about something or someone, but I believe it’s never too late to make amends and to chart a new path.”

She then looked out over the crowd. “Yu Li!”

Yu Li jumped next to me, her eyes wide with panic.

Jian Yi then clasped her hands together and performed a deep bow. “I apologize to you deeply. My anger and hostility against you were misplaced and misdirected. Please forgive me for what I have done.”

“Holy cow,” Yu Li whispered. “What should I do?”

“Bow back,” Gui Zu said with a nudge and Yu Li did so.

Jian Yi then turned a little and bowed towards me. “And to you, Chun, I apologize as well. I understand now more than ever that you have shown tremendous restraint in your dealings with all of us. But I trust in your strength and believe in your cause now. I will support you in your endeavor, as I trust that we all will.”

A huge flow of lemonade came from the crowd. Not as a result of me, but her.

I bowed back. “I thank you all for placing your trust in me.”

“Does this mean you’re really going to fight master Hein?” someone called out.

“He will do more than that,” Jian Yi said before I could answer. “He will provide for us a new future.” And with that she clapped her hands together. “Alright! That’s over now. Everyone, lets clean up this mess. They can tear down our possessions but never take away our pride, yes?”

A rally of cheers went up at that and quickly the murmur of normal conversation ensued. Jian Yi jumped down from the table and approached me.

“Well, I’ve done my part,” she said. “The rest is up to you now.”

I gave her a nod. “I’ll take it from here.”

Jian Yi bowed to Yu Li. “Once again, I am sorry. I don’t expect us to be friends after what I did to you, Yu Li. But I sincerely hope that someday I can find a way to make amends for it.”

Yu Li gave Jian Yi a glance and a head nod but nothing more.

Considering what Jian Yi had done to her, that was probably the best she would get for now.

“Chun, can I trust you to clean up the mess you made?” Jian Yi asked, gesturing to the crater. “It would take us mere mortals days.”

She cracked a smile and I chuckled.

“Anything for our people.”

* * *

The neighborhood all got to work doing just as Jian Yi said—picking up carts and tables, helping one another, but even more so, clearly demonstrating that she was one they were all willing to listen to.

We picked up what was left of our dinner from the floor and had a quiet but pleasant meal at Yu Li’s. Gui Zu lifted everyone’s spirits from the trauma of the evening, telling stories and playing with Su Ling. Yu Li came around after a while, joining in the laughter with him, but all I could think about was what had just transpired down in the square.

Not the mess Zu Tien had made or the reaction from the neighborhood that had traumatized Yu Li. Instead, I marveled at Jian Yi and her budding ember and the aptness at which she turned the temper of that angry mob once things had settled down.

It was as if her gift were opposite to mine. An ability to diffuse anger instead of feeding on it. Perhaps if she did end up kindling her Flame, her path would be very much different than mine.

If such a thing were even possible.

After I left Yu Li’s, I pondered more deeply on how the people responded to Jian Yi. How easy it was for her to get them to do anything she said. She had won them over but more importantly, she had demonstrated that she was capable of self-reflection, admitting fault and even switched direction and showed contrition once everything was made clear. It was honestly way more than I expected of her.

Hell, she even took her shot in the jaw like a complete champ.

I was glad I was able to turn her from an enemy to an ally. And one that might just serve the community far more than I thought possible. The idea remained with me as I walked the dark streets and by the time I reached the library study back at the sect, a new vision was beginning to form in my mind.

My path was clear.

I was a Berserker who yearned to free my people.

And by vengeance, fury and violence, I would do so.

But freeing my people and leading them were two different things and if I wanted to succeed, my path would eventually take me far from here. The people would need someone to lead them once I was gone, but in truth, they seemed to have chosen who they were willing to follow already. Perhaps fate was revealing new possibilities to me.

Perhaps there was a destiny yet for Jian Yi.