"So good!"
A bald, pot-bellied man in his sixties wore a simple set of hanfu a size small for him. A black cat was loosely slung over his neck as he pushed his face into a bowl of dried meat. He shambled down a tiled-roof houses in a small street. Laundry streamed from bamboo poles overhead, and children's giggles rang through the alleys. Across the street, a lovely lady ran ahead of tremendous speeds. None of the villagers stood a chance of catching sight of her, but the tremendous aura surrounding her made people look—not because of the unnatural speed, but also because of the impeccable beauty that remained when she had stopped abruptly. She held her stare at the belly man, who did not glance her way. But somehow, she felt his eyes on her. She glared down and caught the eyes of the cat, which penetrated her with intensity as though she was prey. She instinctively stepped back.
"What is this feeling?" A burst of a whistle from the direction she was going surprised her back into reality. Before she could actually process anything, chaos erupted.
"Not again!" a woman cried as she picked up her child and ran towards the market square, in the midst of the fleeing villagers. Everyone knew what the whistle meant—it was the third time in a month the outer village had been attacked by a pack of beasts. Some ran for safety, some towards the east gate to stem the tide of the horde and minimize property loss.
In spite of so many standing ready to protect themselves from the monsters, they were able to penetrate the village.
"Shit," belly man muttered in anger as a terrorized villager knocked against him, spilling his bowl of dried meat out of his hands. Blending in with the crowd, he went along with the crowd, not wishing to attract the attention of the beautiful woman now standing defiantly in front of the charging horde.
This is stronger than the last one, for them to break the gate this early," she said to the new arrival beside her.
A mustachioed forties man, wearing a red-and-black robe and steel chest and shoulder piece, came in with a group of five fellow ones, all carrying swords. He stamped the ground and kicked up a clod of dirt he had kicked up at a leopard-like beast with big fangs, making it stagger backward. He replied, "I just received word that they seem to be coming all at once."
"This will be a problem," she murmured as she sword cut and a fire slash tore through the nearest beast, suckling a rich pool of blood. In that instant, her aura exploded like a tempestuous tide and her eyes blazed back—keen and merciless—just as she glimpsed a shadow vanish into an now empty alleyway. She hesitated for an instant, torn between pursuit and further combat.
"Hold the line!" she commanded.
"You heard the captain!" the mustached man bellowed. Having confidence that her men would hold their own and keep the beasts occupied, she charged into the alley… and found the empty alley except for the smoldering ruins of one of the creatures which had been fired on from the air.
"What!" she cried, surprised at how fast it had all happened.
Captain!" one of the soldiers cried, bringing her back to reality. Her body visibly flushed reminding her of the beast wave, her sword flushing red.
It wasn't until the dust finally settled and the beasts covered the bloodied streets that the job of cleanup fell into the grim hands of the Azure Guards. Clean-up was easier than the first .or second,because everybody was used to it, and fatalities were kept to an absolute minimum. In one alley, a group of officers in striped red-and-black robes kneeled around a charred carcass, their ranks indicated by the stitching on their arms.
"I don't think this was burned by fire," a bespectacled male replied, bending down to examine the body. He had spoken in a calm and assured tone of voice.
"Explanation?" inquired their captain, Chi Xianyan, who glowed even during serious moments.
Jun Liu pushed his glasses up. "Captain Chi, that Shadow Roc was struck by lightning. The smell of ozone lingers, though most has dissipated. From the burned tissue and the time frame… the beast was an afterthought. Whoever struck it was not trying to kill—it was collateral damage."
"Impossible!" snapped one officer.
"Did you bump your head, scholar?" mocked another.
"Even the captain could not finish off a Shadow Roc as a side task!" a third scoffed.
Jun Liu interrupted, cutting and irritable: "Did you not hear the captain? She said that the man vanished out of her sight!"
"And that's your masterful hypothesis?" a smirking cultivator, Ao Tian, folded his arms.
Jun Liu glared. "Do you have a better hypothesis?"
"Two, actually," Ao Tian said, chuckling. "One, our captain must have been hallucinating during the chaos. She likely slipped away among the crowds." His words caused him to get a cold stare from Chi Xianyan, forcing him to continue in a rush. "Second, the guy used fire as a decoy and made an escape. At the time, the captain had no opportunity to confirm what she actually saw."
"Either way, there's no evidence," Jun Liu snapped. "But you can't be seriously suggesting fire did this in less than two breaths."
Ao Tian's lip curled. "It's still more reasonable than some fantasy lightning user!"
"You frog in a well!" Jun Liu shot back. "Read the ancient texts now and again—lightning is rare, but it did existed in ancient times!"
'That is not possible. If he is here, then he would have come back by now. Or are there others like him?'
As her junior officers conferred, Chi Xianyan lapsed into reflection. "Jun Liu, is it really lightning?"
Before he could respond, a deep, rumbling voice stilled them all. "Did someone say… lightning?"
Air became heavy as a man in monk robes approached, his figure on the chests of the officers like a mountain. His voice was heavy, nigh on holy.
"The commander!" someone ejaculated.
"Commander Jing Tu?" another officer exclaimed. "He missed his annual assembly—this must be urgent!"
"Don't tell me… a Heavenly Origin beast is going to emerge!"
Whispers ran through the ranks in anticipation.
Chi Xianyan stepped forward and bowed a little, her usual fiery expression tempered with respect. "Commander Jing Tu, why have you returned so early?"
The monk let out a breath, his eyes distant. "He wasn't there." For a moment, there was a flash of sadness on his face. Then he continued, his tone growing eager: "But you mentioned lightning. Did you encounter a user?"
No, Jun Liu replied, running his glasses up with a smile. "But apparently the commander knows one of them."
"Your coming here is a proof. I didn't want to believe it, but if he hadn't come, you would have returned by now," Chi Xianyan said intensely.
Jing Tu's expression was uncertain. "Yes, I had a problem. I've long suspected he wasn't by himself up there. Today I confirmed it. His buddy is not so. pleasant. When I was getting too close, one swipe of Qi sent me flying through the air and nearly flattened me."
He rubbed his own head with a silly grin, as if recalling a minor bother rather than a near-lethal experience.
"Only Commander Jing Tu," growled one of the officers with a frightened smile, "can smile while telling a story of having brushed with death…"
"Someone who can kill the commander with a single punch must be very strong," another voiced the unspoken opinion.
Jun Liu leaped nearly out of his chair, eyes shining behind his glasses. "Commander, explain—this lightning wielder, tell us about him?"
Another officer said "I think I've heard of him they call him something, I think..."
Jing Tu and Chi Xianyan spoke together, their voices blending into a weightiness that stilled the air. "LIGHTNING GOD!"
Junior officers stood in attendance, their cheeks pale.
Jing Tu drew a breath, his voice taking on a serious tone. "I don't know him personally. In fact, I've never even seen him up close. But somewhere deep within the Southern Mountains… there is a man. I know it is not an animal—the Qi is unmistakably human.". Under the peak he remains, and storms of lightning incessantly; a storms' wall of no clouds exists perpetually. He grinned half-weakly. "That lightning storm, is what I have used to temper my body."
There was a silence among the people.
"No wonder the commander always returns battered," Ao Tian growled half-whispered, half-in awe.
"Enough! I will release a search order for him . That aside, I think I've learned something about the beast horde and why we have a beast wave," Jing Tu returned them to the issue at hand.
Their tones had mellowed by then, understanding that the problem required tact. The officers instinctively followed their commander and captain from the alleyway, the carcass and the villagers' commotion faded behind them.
In the cover of a room, the talk finally continued in hushed tones.