The furious, venomous threats of the two cloaked figures echoed across the crater, a promise of total annihilation for the traitor and his sect. Vice Sect Leader Zha Wu stood his ground, his face a mask of grim, resolute determination. He had made his choice.

  He had seen the abyss his Sect Master had led them into, and he had chosen to leap in a different direction. It would be one thing to be partners in something but it was completely another thing to be used and discarded. He saw time and again, these people did not care at all about them. Just now, they had told them all to go die, for what? To buy a little bit of time? What good with a few minutes do, this wasn’t a partnership, this was a master slave relationship.

  Whatever the consequences, he would face them. He was not fazed by their threats; he just had to hope he had placed his trust in the right new power.

  He had.

  Jian Xuan acted with a speed that was not just fast, but fundamentally reality-bending. He had been a silent, imposing statue on the prow of the ship, but the instant the two cloaked figures revealed themselves and their killing intent, he became a blur of motion. It happened so quickly, it seemed to defy the very passage of time. The woman’s shriek of “traitor” had barely left her lips when Jian Xuan had already acted.

  He did not draw his sword. He simply raised his hand, his fingers tracing a simple, elegant arc in the air. A half-dozen swords of pure, white energy materialized, not with a flash, but by simply being there. They did not scream through the air; they simply crossed the distance in an instant.

  Two of the swords struck the cloaked figures. They were not lethal strikes; they were impossibly precise, striking key meridians in their bodies with the delicate, disabling touch of a master surgeon.

  The furious, blazing auras of the two figures were extinguished in an instant, like candles snuffed out by a sudden gale. They let out choked, surprised gasps as their spiritual energy vanished, and they tumbled from the air, powerless, crashing to the ground in heaps of dark cloth.

  The entire exchange, from the figures’ explosive appearance to their powerless fall, had taken less than a breath. The thousands of disciples on the wall, who had been bracing for a terrifying battle between experts, could only stare in stunned, uncomprehending silence. The threat had been neutralized before it had even truly begun.

  Jian Xuan’s cold gaze fell upon Zha Wu, and for the first time, there was a flicker of something akin to approval in his eyes.

  “You have made, perhaps, the wisest choice of your life,” Jian Xuan’s voice boomed, calm and authoritative. “Take your disciples, and those from the other sects who will follow you, and go into hiding until this storm has passed.”

  Zha Wu shook his head, a new, determined light in his eyes. “Honored Grand Elder, I cannot. My duty is to my sect, to the disciples who were led into this madness. I must go deeper into the empire. I must try to find the main force, try to save as many of my people as I can from being sacrificed as pawns.”

  “You could die,” Jian Xuan stated, his voice flat.

  “I am willing,” Zha Wu replied, his voice firm. “I grew up in the Soaring Dragon Sect. It is my home. I will not see it destroyed by these… parasites.”

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  Jian Xuan was silent for a moment, assessing the man. He saw no deception, only a desperate, foolish, but noble resolve. He gave a single, almost imperceptible nod. “Go, then. Take your people, and the disciples of the other sects who will follow you, and do what you must.”

  Zha Wu bowed deeply, a gesture of profound gratitude. He turned to the stunned, confused disciples on the wall. “You have heard the truth! We have been used! Our Sect Master has sold our lives to a hidden power for his own ambition! Those who wish to save our sect, to save yourselves, come with me! We will find our brothers and sisters in the main army and warn them of this treachery!”

  Not all of the disciples chose to follow him. Some were still too loyal to the Sect Master, others too terrified to move. A significant number, however, their faces a mixture of anger and betrayal, flew from the walls to rally behind their Vice Sect Leader.

  A few leaders from the allied sect forces also joined, shouting to their own people that they had their own contingency plans, their own meet-up locations should things go wrong. “Tell everyone what happened here!” one of them yelled. “We were not partners; we were disposable pawns!”

  Within minutes, Zha Wu had gathered a force of several hundred loyalists, and they flew off, a desperate, rebellious crusade heading deep into the heart of the war-torn empire.

  With the immediate situation on the ground resolved, Jian Xuan retrieved the two powerless, cloaked figures, bringing them onto the deck of the ship. The interrogation was brief and utterly fruitless. They were fanatics, their minds sealed by powerful techniques. They did nothing but spit curses and vile threats.

  “You know nothing of the true power you are meddling with,” the woman snarled, her voice full of venom despite her helplessness. “When the Master arrives, you will all be nothing but dust!”

  Before Jian Xuan could press them further, a dark, unstable light began to glow from within their bodies. Their self-destruct seals had activated. With a final, defiant glare, their eyes went blank, and they collapsed, dead.

  Li Yu and Jian Xuan inspected the bodies. “The woman was a 3rd level Core Formation expert,” Jian Xuan noted. “The man was at the peak of Foundation Establishment.” They were agents, not leaders, and their willingness to die so readily spoke of the terrifying ruthlessness of the organization they served.

  They now had a clear, open path into the empire, but their window of opportunity was closing fast. The reinforcements the cloaked figures had mentioned were still on their way. They had to decide their next move.

  They gathered in the ship’s command cabin, the mood urgent and decisive. “We have two options,” Kui said, his voice sharp and analytical. “We can wait here, set an ambush, and deal with the incoming reinforcements. Or, we can charge directly in and secure our people first.”

  “An ambush is tactically sound,” Jian Xuan mused. “We could eliminate another of their high-level experts. But we do not know how long we have until they arrive.”

  “Our people are the priority,” Li Yu stated, ending the debate. “They have been trapped in this hostile territory for days. They might have seen something, heard something. They may have additional information about these mass disappearances. We secure our people first if possible. Always.”

  The decision was unanimous. A new, two-pronged plan was formulated in an instant.

  “Kui, you and I will go first,” Jian Xuan said. “We will travel faster.”

  Kui, the merchant, looked at the peerless swordsman, a mixture of terror and thrilled excitement on his face. He nodded, and the two of them walked out onto the deck. Jian Xuan summoned his flying sword, a simple, elegant blade of light that pulsed with an immense, contained power.

  With a slightly undignified yelp, Kui jumped on behind him. A moment later, they were gone, a single, brilliant streak of light shooting deep into the northern horizon at a speed the transport ship could never hope to match.

  Li Yu and Cyra remained. “We will follow,” Li Yu said, turning to the ship’s captain. “Full speed. We will need this ship to transport everyone out.”

  The massive transport ship shuddered as its formations were pushed to their absolute limit, and it began to move, a slow but steady beast following the brilliant comet of light that was its vanguard.

  The rescue mission had begun in earnest. They were now charging headlong into a hostile empire, towards a dark and terrifying secret, with a powerful, unknown enemy force racing to meet them.