"Seriously," Lei Ze muttered, a dry, sharp exhale of breath escaping his lungs.
The persistent rhythm of footsteps behind him hadn't faded. If anything, they had grown bolder, sticking to his trail like grease on a sleeve. He adjusted his stride, banking into a sharp turn to lose them in the labyrinthine sprawl of the district, but the shadows followed. He could hear the frantic scuff of leather on stone, they were running now.
Lei Ze didn't bother running further. He ducked behind the jagged corner of a limestone corridor, pressing his back against the damp masonry. A few seconds later, the group skidded to a halt exactly where he had disappeared.
"Where is the rat?" one panted, his chest heaving under a cheap linen tunic.
Lei Ze stepped out from the gloom. He didn't draw a weapon; he simply stood there, his chin tilted at an angle that bordered on a sneer. The disbelief sat heavy in his gut. He had just arrived, yet these men were already foaming at the mouth to end him.
"What do you want?" Lei Ze asked. He didn't wait for an answer. Words were clearly a secondary currency here.
He launched himself forward before they could even find their footing. It wasn't a fight; it was an eviction. His lead foot connected with a sickening thud against the first man's jaw, the force carrying through to the second. Their heads collided with a wet crack. Saliva and a stray tooth sprayed into the air before they collapsed into the dirt, limbs tangling like discarded rope.
"Try to find some patience," Lei Ze said, his voice flat as he used the toe of his boot to shove one of the groaning bodies out of his path. "I'm just a visitor."
He didn't look back. Behind him, the men were reduced to a mess of bruised ribs and whimpers.
"Who... who is that monster?" one hissed through a mouthful of blood.
Lei Ze kept walking, his pace leisurely but his mind already miles ahead, aimed toward the heart of the Qianshi Empire. The city was a headache. Every few steps, his skin crawled under the lingering gazes of women lining the balconies, their eyes heavy with a commercial sort of hunger.
"Is every lady in this province for sale?" He shook his head, looking away from a particularly bold wink.
He tilted his gaze toward the slate-grey sky, and his pulse skipped. Four masked figures were streaking across the rooftops, moving with the jagged grace of crows. Slung across their shoulders was a girl, her radiant robes fluttering like the broken wing of a bird.
He couldn't see her face, but the way her head lolled told him everything. She wasn't a guest.
Lei Ze fell into a silent trot, shadowing them from the street level. They led him away from the markets, toward a massive temple complex where the iron-bound gates swung open at their approach. Two guard-cultivators stood at the threshold, their hands resting on the pommels of their blades.
Lei Ze pulled back into the shadows of an alley, his eyes scanning the perimeter. Frontal entry was a fool's errand. He circled the outer wall until he found a stretch of masonry where the moss grew thick and the sentries were absent. With a fluid, silent spring, he cleared the wall and dropped into the courtyard.
The "temple" was a lie. This was the fortified nest of the Jie Clan. The silence here felt forced, a byproduct of terror rather than peace. At the center of it all sat Patriarch Jie Ming, a man whose reputation for cruelty was the only thing louder than his silence. In Wanyong Province, his word wasn't just law; it was a death sentence.
Lei Ze trailed the masked men into a dimmed ancestral hall. The air was thick with the scent of melting tallow, and hundreds of candles flickered in a tight circle on the floor.
In the center of the light, the Patriarch sat cross-legged, his eyes closed in a meditation that felt more like a simmer.
The masked men knelt, dropping the unconscious Ying Hua onto the cold floor with a dull thud.
"Do you have the scroll?" Jie Ming's voice barked through the room, though his eyelids didn't so much as quiver.
The men exchanged a panicked, sweating glance. "We... we didn't find the scroll, Lord."
The Patriarch's hand lashed out. He didn't touch the man, but an invisible weight slammed into the speaker's throat. Lei Ze watched from the rafters as the man's eyes bulged, his face turning a dark, bruised purple. The dark power coiled tighter until his neck snapped with a sound like a dry branch. The body hit the floor, limp and hollow.
The remaining three men scrambled backward, their foreheads hitting the tiles.
"Lord! Please! This girl... she is Long Wei's daughter," one shrieked. "If the scroll exists, the knowledge is buried in her."
Jie Ming stood. He approached Ying Hua with a slow, predatory limp. To him, she wasn't a person; she was a map to the Heaven-Rending Cipher, a technique rumored to allow a cultivator to rewrite the laws of their own internal energy, granting immortality at the cost of a thousand lives.
"Chain her," he commanded. "Hang her between the pillars. I want her to feel the weight of her father's sins the moment she wakes."
Once she was suspended, her arms pulled taut by cold iron links, the Patriarch waved the men away. He stood with his hands folded behind his back, a statue waiting for a ghost to speak.
Lei Ze crept toward the side entrance, his breath held tight in his chest. Just as he reached for the latch, the door swung open.
Three masked figures began to spill out.
Before he could draw his breath to strike, a hand clamped over his mouth and hauled him into a dark alcove behind a decorative screen.
"You!"
It was Jie Wan. Her eyes were wide, a mix of shock and something far more irritating.
Lei Ze shoved her hand away, his jaw tight as he brushed the dust from his blue robes.
"You again. Do you have a habit of lurking in corners?"
Wan looked at him, her brow furrowing as she realized where they were. "How did you get inside? Do you have any idea what my father does to trespassers?"
Lei Ze pressed his back against the wall, listening to the muffled sounds from the hall.
"I'm here for a friend," he lied, the words tasting like copper.
Wan's eyes narrowed, her pride flaring. "A friend? In there? If you don't leave right now, I'll scream. My father is ten feet away."
Lei Ze saw the way her gaze lingered on his mouth, the way her anger lacked teeth. He leaned in, closing the distance until their shadows merged on the wall. He caught her eye, his voice dropping to a low, intimate hum. "You're still thinking about the market, aren't you?"
Wan's resolve seemed to melt into the masonry. Her breathing hitched. "You really are an arrogant bastard. I like that."
A heavy creak echoed, the main hall doors were opening. The Patriarch was stepping out to attend his council.
Wan didn't think. She stepped into the light, spreading her arms wide to block her father's line of sight. "Father! Wait, about the meeting..."
While she played the doting, distracting daughter, Lei Ze slipped through the crack in the door like a wisp of smoke.
Inside, the sight of Ying Hua hanging from the pillars made his stomach turn. He remembered her face from the frozen river, radiant and full of life. Now, she looked like a broken doll. "Is this destiny or just a curse?"
he whispered, his hands already working the locks on her chains.
He had just caught her as she fell when a sharp gasp came from the doorway. Jie Wan stood there, her arms folded over her chest.
The jealousy on her face was so thick it was almost a physical presence.
"So," Wan sighed, her gaze raking over Ying Hua's unconscious form. "This is the 'friend'?"
Lei Ze offered a strained, lopsided smile as he adjusted Ying Hua's weight against his chest. "Beautiful, isn't she?"
Wan's face darkened, her eyes flashing toward the exit. "Is she your girlfriend?"
The question caught him off guard. He looked down at Ying Hua's soft, glowing lips, the way her head rested against his shoulder. He shook the thought away, glancing back at Wan with a mocking glint.
"Are you jealous, Princess?"
Wan pointed toward the door, her hand shaking slightly. "Get out. Take your 'girlfriend' and leave before I change my mind and call the guards back."
Lei Ze nodded, his expression turning serious. "I owe you one."
He slipped out of the hall, carrying the girl through the silent corridors. But as he crossed the final courtyard, a shout ripped through the air. A sentry on the wall had spotted the blue of his robes.
"Intruder! The girl is being stolen!"
Patriarch Jie Ming stormed into the courtyard, his face contorted into a mask of pure fury. He pointed a trembling finger at Lei Ze's retreating back.
"Kill the boy!" he roared. "But bring me the girl alive! Rip him apart!"