At the Jade Liquid Realm, the body becomes like a rare medicine — rich, saturated, fragrant with concentrated essence.

Only at Perfection does that radiance turn inward, becoming something contained and still.

But right now, Shen Yi’s eyes had lit.

He stepped forward, and in the space of a breath he was standing at the forest’s edge.

Organs luminous. Blood carrying gold moving without rest through the body.

The vast qi that had been kept pulled close finally spread outward — the full measure of Jade Liquid Perfection announcing itself for the first time.

Clang—

At the ring of that sharp sword-cry, the Commanders jolted awake, tumbling out of their tents with blades already in hand.

The first thing they saw was sword qi filling the sky.

“You dare come forward?!”

“If you want to keep your life — get out of my way!”

The sword practitioner’s shout split rock and cleaved steel, endless sword qi closing in around that solitary dark-robed figure like the talons of a great beast drawing shut.

“Qingfeng Mountain — rebellion!”

Under that crushing pressure, Wang Meng emptied his lungs in a bellow that shook the trees, trying to push the warning up the slope to where the others were camped.

In the same instant, he looked for the second Jade Liquid practitioner, fear mixing with a thread of relief.

Thank the heavens Hong Lei put two of them down here.

These Qingfeng Mountain people really chose this spot to break through.

The sword qi was fierce, but two Jade Liquid practitioners fighting together should be able to hold until the Deputy Commanders arrived.

Then Dai Bing’s figure came into view.

She was standing with her sword raised — trembling hands, blade pointed — not toward the attacker, but toward the young man in black.

The Commanders stared.

Their hearts dropped in unison.

Experienced hands all. There was nothing left to interpret.

Jaws set, they launched themselves at the woman with blades drawn.

Boom.

The sword qi that had been gathering and compressing into the blade — in the instant of the thrust, it detonated. A violent wind tore outward, dust and debris rolling in every direction. Every person present threw an arm up in front of their face.

A voice rang through the forest, loud enough to carry.

“Martial sister — now!”

Dai Bing’s teeth were clenched. The hand on the sword had stopped trembling.

Her bloodshot eyes swept back to the Commanders. “Get back! We worked together — don’t make me do this!”

She’d heard something in her martial brother’s shout. A crack in the composure of a man who’d been famous for years, who almost never showed strain in a fight — let alone against a young Commander who had barely arrived anywhere.

Her original position here had been a holding one. She hadn’t intended to hurt anyone if it could be avoided — just frighten Shen Yi off.

She hadn’t expected him to be this immovable. Or to actually stop her martial brother.

Any more hesitation and they weren’t going anywhere tonight.

She broke forward, sword qi of the same character moving along the blade — slightly weaker, but recognizable.

Ahead, the dust scattered.

Shen Yi gripped the hilt with one hand, drew in a rising stroke — the dark blade not yet fully clear of the scabbard when it intercepted the three-foot blade coming toward him.

He watched the man in front of him without urgency and kept drawing.

When the tip emerged—

He turned his wrist.

Under that enormous force, the man’s sword bent into an exaggerated arc, crying out in protest.

The Qingfeng Mountain administrator’s forehead was damp, the blankness on his face replaced by something that couldn’t quite process what it was seeing.

The shock through the grip was nearly pulling it from his hands.

This force — standing across from him didn’t feel like a Division Commander. It felt like a demon wearing a human body.

Crack.

Three breaths. The fine-iron sword held for three breaths, then split along a web of fractures and shattered — every fragment driving into the administrator’s flesh.

The dark blade that had risen through the exchange opened skin and cut deep from his right hip to his left shoulder.

Before he could cry out, fingers seized his collar and he was hurled backward.

“Martial brother!”

Dai Bing had been charging. She looked up, saw the body flying toward her, and tried to pull back her force — her footing went unsteady immediately.

She hadn’t found her balance when he hit.

She reached to catch instinctively, hands just touching his body—

Bang. Bang.

The momentum carried through him and into her without giving her any time to process it. It was like being struck by a hillside. Her frame flew, organs compressed and churning as if about to split.

She and her martial brother tore through several large trees before they hit the ground. She coughed blood, barely holding on.

Under that terrible force, her years of refined swordwork, her early Jade Liquid Realm cultivation — all of it had been as effective as an insect against a wagon wheel.

Dai Bing fought for breath, face white with shock, arm reaching weakly toward the sword lying nearby.

She was almost at the hilt when a boot came down quietly on her wrist.

Pain. She cried out and looked up.

The young man stood over her, eyes bright and empty of feeling, blade resting without particular emphasis against her throat.

Her hand was inches from the grip.

Despair moved into her eyes.

She had no doubt at all — if she continued trying to reach the sword, the dark blade at her throat would move without hesitation.

How is a two-band Commander capable of this. There isn’t even a thought of resistance left in me.

The Qingfeng Mountain administrator, barely breathing, reached slowly across and laid his hand on her arm. No strength left in the fingers — but the meaning was clear enough.

He smiled through bloody teeth. “Thank you, Commander. For leaving us our lives.”

“…”

Shen Yi glanced at him and hit him across the face with the flat of the blade.

Absolute nonsense.

When the man had thrust — it had looked overwhelming, but there’d been a gap left in it deliberately. Any Jade Liquid Realm practitioner who’d been shaken enough to back off by a dozen zhang could have avoided it.

The price of that would have been watching both of them disappear.

Letting them go was obviously not an option.

Killing them wasn’t necessary either.

Whether they lived or died after this was not his concern — the same way they apparently hadn’t considered what would happen to him if he’d let them escape.

He sheathed the blade and kicked the sword aside.

“Tie them both up. Send them to Deputy Commander Hong.”

The Commanders stood in the wreckage of the forest — tall trees toppled at angles, the ground torn up — and needed a moment to find their footing.

They hadn’t fully understood what had happened.

They’d seen the sword qi explode, and then Shen Yi had done something fast, and now two Jade Liquid Realm practitioners were piled together on the ground.

Several throats worked.

Hong Lei’s earlier remarks carried considerably more weight now. Whether or not there was actually a family named Shen somewhere in Qingzhou, whether or not someone could make Zhao Kanglin’s grandfather beg — at minimum, this particular person was one you simply did not cross.

Wang Meng thought about the unhurried, warm way the man had asked for instruction a few days ago, and felt a chill move through him.

Someone who fought this cleanly and without mercy was not quite the easy company he’d appeared.

They dug specialty rope from the tents. Both prisoners were barely conscious — there was some concern the rope might actually finish them — but they trussed them up properly regardless.

(End of Chapter)