“Boss… the boss is dead…” Lone Sword Without a Trace had run a long way, and he had watched with his own eyes as that freak cat one-shot Cobra. His gaze went blank for a moment. Then he lost hold of himself and bellowed down the team channel, “The general commander is dead, the general commander is dead!! Everybody pull out, get out now!!”

That one shout broke what was left of Wings That Shroud the Sky’s nerve completely. To the men who got the retreat order it came as a pardon, and they fell back in crowd after crowd. Players with speed skills threw the skills onto themselves like their lives depended on it.

The Wings force had come in as one solid body, a sight to put fear in a man. It was a pot of porridge boiled to mush now, scattering in a rout… and behind them came the Red Leaf Pact, pressing forward along the whole line and cutting them down as if somebody had put a stimulant in their veins.

The Red Leaf Pact’s second commander stood staring, watching the Wings force break and run, and murmured blankly, “Wings That Shroud the Sky are running… we actually won… Is this — is this really happening?”

His eyes went to Xietian, who stood where he was and had not gone after them. It was that man. One man, and he had brought off a reversal that should have been impossible, the kind of thing out of a myth.

In that moment, after all their years of guessing, they finally understood how one man could get through the Abyss trial, and how one man could complete System Quests that no number of teams had ever managed. What they had seen in this fight was not a player any more. It was something standing among players that was godlike and could not be matched.

“He’s just obscene… The Pact Master has said any number of times that he wants to bring him in, and I never thought much of the idea before… If we could get that man into the Red Leaf Pact, what the hell would we have to fear from Wings That Shroud the Sky?” Red Leaf Iron Wall, who had been played with by Ye Tianxie more than once, said it with his teeth clenched and his fists clenched and his face gone stiff. He was even wondering… had Xietian helped them today as a gesture of goodwill toward the Red Leaf Pact? Why else would he offend Wings That Shroud the Sky just to come and help them hold Windfall Town?

As they watched, Ye Tianxie turned slowly and walked toward them. Under the Hero’s Headguard, that half a face showed nothing at all. Both men remembered the terrifying strength he had shown a few minutes earlier, and their hearts started slamming. When Ye Tianxie came to a halt in front of them, they could barely stop themselves from backing up a few paces. The impression that fight had left on them was too deep for that.

“Give me a Town Portal Scroll for the City of Stars,” Ye Tianxie said.

With the Hero’s Headguard in the way, the two Red Leaf Pact men could not see what was in his eyes, but his voice was very calm — as calm as if he were speaking to two strangers on the road who had nothing to do with him at all. Nothing in it was aimed at them, and there was not a trace of friendliness in it either. Red Leaf Iron Wall’s expression stayed frozen for two full seconds. Then, in a fluster, he pulled out every City of Stars scroll in his backpack at once.

Ye Tianxie took one, did not trouble to say anything else, and went back to the City of Stars, leaving the two Red Leaf Pact men standing there looking at each other.

Xietian had turned a lost battle completely around on his own, and the Red Leaf Pact had held Windfall Town because of it. And that was not just a matter of winning them a piece of ground in an excellent position — it had let them hold their heads up again after being ambushed by Wings That Shroud the Sky.

But after doing them a favor that size… he had asked for one Town Portal Scroll and walked off, not even bothering to say another word to them… What was it he had come out here for today?

“He reminds me of Tian Moxie,” the Red Leaf Pact’s second commander said.

Red Leaf Iron Wall nodded.

Back in Skyholder, in that game’s great days, the Red Leaf Pact had been done a kindness by Tian Moxie once. That time too it had been during a city defense battle. Battle Soul Hall had ambushed them, and just as they were breaking, Tian Moxie appeared… His class in that game was Shield Warrior, and he was only passing through. Then he took up the sword and the shield in his hands and drove into Battle Soul Hall’s ranks — in, and out, and in again, and out again… One man, and he had Battle Soul Hall shaking from top to bottom and their whole formation in confusion. Tian Moxie was a Shield Warrior back then, but he was like a keen-edged knife going back and forth through Battle Soul Hall’s body… And in the end the Red Leaf Pact, already beaten, seized the moment, pushed with everything at once, and drove Battle Soul Hall off the field for good.

Afterward Tian Moxie walked away without a backward look, and he did not so much as break stride for the Red Leaf Pact’s thanks. When he decided to help someone he needed no reason for it; it was whatever took him in the moment, and gratitude was not something he had any interest in.

Today’s scene, and that one — how alike they were.

Lone Sword Without a Trace led the running and ran for his life, and did not stop until he was deep in the Windfall Plains with nobody chasing him any more. When he had calmed down he looked back toward Windfall Town — and could not raise the nerve to go back there again. Not now.

That fight had been theirs to win, and they had lost it, and not to the Red Leaf Pact. They had lost to one man… There was no telling how long it would take for the shadow this battle had cast to fade in him. For a while at least, he never wanted to face this Xietian again.

“Young Master, we lost… we’ve failed.” Lone Sword Without a Trace held the communicator and reported it to the Son of Heaven in a thoroughly frightened voice. For a moment, apart from “we lost,” he had no idea what to say to him. Not long ago he had sworn up and down that the Red Leaf Pact could not withstand a single blow, that Windfall Town was already in the bag… And the Red Leaf Pact’s defense really could not withstand a single blow. But Xietian — one man — had sent them running in disgrace.

“Lost? What do you mean, lost?” The Son of Heaven’s voice came through the communicator, and it dropped low fast. “Do not tell me you were driven off by the Red Leaf Pact’s two thousand-odd men!!”

Lone Sword Without a Trace’s heart lurched into a faster beat. He made himself swallow. “…Young Master, hear me out first. The Red Leaf Pact was no problem at all. We were this far from wiping out every last one of them… but Xietian, Xietian showed up… He is simply a devil! A devil! One man, and he… I… the man isn’t human at all…”

The sweat came off Lone Sword Without a Trace’s forehead in streams. He thought of Xietian cutting through the Wings ranks like Death himself, and his heart sped up all over again, and he began to talk in circles, with no idea how to describe a thing that nobody could believe unless he saw it with his own eyes… He was certain of that much himself. If he had not seen it, and somebody else had told him how today had gone, he would not have believed it either.

Bang! Something on the other end was slammed down hard, and Lone Sword Without a Trace’s heart went thud. The Son of Heaven’s voice came through the communicator, cold. “Are you trying to tell me that you beat back the Red Leaf Pact easily enough… and then Xietian, on his own, beat back all of you? Is that it?”

“Yes… yes.”

“You idiot!!” the Son of Heaven roared. “Do you think I’m a three-year-old?! Five thousand men driven off by one Xietian — do you think this Son of Heaven’s brain is made of the stuff that comes out the other end?! You useless mouth!! Get back here right now. Now!”

Lone Sword Without a Trace was sweating under the shouting. “Right away… I’ll come back right away.”

……

……

Good weather.

Ye Tianxie looked up at the sky and walked toward home.

In going out there he had had no intention of helping the Red Leaf Pact — not the slightest. All he wanted was for Wings That Shroud the Sky to lose this siege, for their scheming to come to nothing and their hands to close on nothing.

And at the same time, it was a signal sent to Wings That Shroud the Sky. The Son of Heaven would certainly be able to read it. Because the man must already know that the Xietian of today is the Tian Moxie of before.

Perhaps the Son of Heaven had already reckoned that ending up as his enemy was inevitable. It was only that he had underestimated Ye Tianxie’s strength utterly, and misjudged what touching his forbidden ground would cost. If the Xietian of today were still the equal of the Tian Moxie of before, what he had done might have bought him rather more. But the Xietian of today, in level of strength, was not the Tian Moxie of that time at all…

Zuo Pojun and Murong Qiushui were already waiting when he got home. Both of them came to meet him the moment he walked in.

“Second Brother… word just came in from Windfall Town… Second Brother, that was so damn impressive — you drove Wings That Shroud the Sky back on your own. Somebody got the whole thing on video, and I figure three hours at the outside and that video will have gone around the world… But why did you help the Red Leaf Pact, Second Brother? And I seem to remember you helped the Red Leaf Pact once two years ago too. You said then that you’d suddenly decided you liked the look of the name Red Leaf Pact. So what about this time?” Zuo Pojun asked, suspicious.

“I will destroy Wings That Shroud the Sky!” Ye Tianxie raised his head and said it in a voice utterly level and absolutely final.

Zuo Pojun and Murong Qiushui both went blank, and Zuo Pojun blurted, “Why? Has that Son of Heaven been stupid enough to offend you, Second Brother?”

The power of Wings That Shroud the Sky is nothing that small and midsize outfits can be mentioned alongside. In the World of Fate the new Wings That Shroud the Sky has only just been founded, but with that deep foundation behind it nothing about it is unsteady at the root, and its growth has been ferociously fast — in a very short time its numbers have already reached the millions. Wipe out Wings That Shroud the Sky: outside Ye Tianxie, you could hardly find a second player in all Huaxia who could say those words as calmly as that.

“Heh…” Ye Tianxie’s eyes darkened. “He took away something that matters a great deal to me… that name, which belongs to me and Xian’er.”

Zuo Pojun and Murong Qiushui fell silent… That one sentence was all it took. They understood completely that what Ye Tianxie had said was no light remark, and that he meant, truly, to make the name Wings That Shroud the Sky disappear from the Lost Continent.

The Son of Heaven had borrowed Tian Moxie’s name to give Wings That Shroud the Sky a start faster than anyone could have imagined. To his mind… to anyone’s mind… having a name of your own taken and used would mean nothing worse than being angry about it for a while. It would never occur to him that this was Ye Tianxie’s one reverse scale, the one thing that must never be touched.

Everything she gave him is a reverse scale, and no one may profane it.

(End of Chapter 267)