A Song For The Ages

The stone chamber was eerily silent, the lingering mist swirling around the walls like ghosts reluctant to leave. They hadn't moved. Their Essence Qi lay dormant beneath the surface, held in check, waiting. No explosive displays of power yet, just two cultivators, standing still, the tension between them sharp enough to cut steel.

Feiyin's voice broke the silence, low and cold. "Hui...That was her name.

Feng Liu tilted his head, a faint wrinkle forming between his brows as if reaching into the fog of memory. Then his lips curled.

"Hui... Oh, that little thing," he said with mocking nonchalance. "Quite the feast. Couldn't last long, though. I really liked her reactions, how unfortunate."

Feiyin's eyes darkened. He didn't respond. He didn't have to. The silence that followed was louder than any scream.

Then, they moved.

The floor cracked as their auras burst free, no longer suppressed. The air warped around them from the pressure of released Essence Qi. Mist scattered in all directions, burned away by the raw power of their collision.

Their first clash was like thunder erupting within stone walls. Fist met palm, water-infused Essence Qi collided with unnaturally condensed Essence Qi. Feiyin surged forward, his body pulsing with tempered strength that far exceeded his apparent phase.

As their bodies clashed, elemental forces surged. Feng Liu's water Qi burst outward in layered waves and illusions, while Feiyin's every movement pulsed with terrifying clarity.

For cultivators in the Elemental Infusion Phase, every element infused is another layer of tempering, of versatility. As Essence qi is born from the fusion of body, soul and essence, each element that is infused not only add the same properties to the qi, but also adds another layer of tempering to the body. The elements shaped and reinforced specific organs and bodily systems, mirroring the body tempering realm. Earth strengthened the skin and spleen, Wood the muscles and liver, Fire the blood and heart, Metal the bones and lungs, Water the marrow and kidneys.

"So? Are you going to pull out that pretty saber of yours, Feiyin? Or will you keep pretending you're better than me?"

Feiyin didn't answer.

Instead, he stepped forward and slammed his fist into Feng Liu's jaw.

The blow landed with a deafening crack, sending tremors throughout the room as Feng Liu's head snapped back violently, feet skidding across the ground before he caught himself. The mist erupted like a geyser around them, Essence spiraling in the wake of the impact.

Feng Liu's laughter echoed even through the pain. "Ah... you've been hiding your strength? Good! Come on, show me how righteous you are!"

Feiyin was already moving. Another punch, then another. His fists were not clean or elegant, they were brutal, fueled by immense strength and raw emotion. Every blow struck with purpose, smashing into flesh and bone, breaking through the illusions of superiority that Feng Liu cloaked himself in.

Feng Liu retaliated, water Qi coalescing into tendrils that lashed out like serpents. Mist surged in deceptive patterns, flickering with fleeting images meant to confuse and disorient. From every direction, droplets condensed and launched as piercing bullets of Essence-infused water.

But Feiyin weaved through them with practiced grace, his oscillation sense sharpening the world around him into perfect clarity. He moved like a shadow guided by instinct, dodging the water bullets, parrying the tendrils with his hands. His feet glided along the ground, his posture poised yet firm. Still, his saber remained sheathed.

"Why aren't you unsheating your blade?!" Feng Liu shouted, unleashing a vortex of spiraling mist meant to obscure Feiyin's vision. "What are you waiting for? Trying to humiliate me?!"

Feiyin ducked low, rolled forward through the mist, and delivered a hook that knocked Feng Liu off balance.

"Because I don't want to just kill you," Feiyin growled, voice like gravel. "I want you to feel it, as you did to Hui. The pain. The regret. The helplessness."

He ducked a tendril, shoulder-checked Feng Liu into a broken pillar, then drove his knee into his ribs with a crunch.

"You think I don't know pain?!" Feiyin snarled, slamming him into the ground.

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Feng Liu coughed blood and spat it toward Feiyin's feet. "Then why... act like you're above me?!"

Feiyin didn't respond with words. He raised his fists again, raining down blow after blow. The floor cracked. The walls shook. Feng Liu's body twisted under the barrage.

And yet, he laughed.

"I survived worse!"

"I know," Feiyin said, his voice hoarse. "That's why this fight will be your last."

He grabbed Feng Liu by the collar and lifted him slightly off the ground. Their faces were inches apart.

"I saw it. I felt it. What she did to you. You never deserved that. No one does."

Feng Liu blinked, surprised by the sorrow in his voice.

Feiyin continued, quieter now. "But you know what scares me? That I'm not any better than you."

He dropped Feng Liu, who gasped on the ground.

"If I were in your place... If someone hurt the ones I love... I'd do unspeakable things. I'd burn the world. Just to protect them. Just to see them smile again. That makes me selfish, maybe even monstrous."

He stepped back, eyes hollow, fists trembling.

"I help when I can. I try to be good. But at the end of the day, I don't care about being righteous. I just want the ones I care about to live well."

Feng Liu coughed again, laughing bitterly. "Then why kill me? Aren't we the same?"

Feiyin looked down at him. "Because Hui was someone I loved. And you took her away."

Feng Liu's expression twitched. His eyes darted for a moment, and then his mouth curled into a grin, feral, calculating. He suddenly thrust his hand into his sleeve and pulled out a vial filled with murky, swirling water Qi.

With a flick of his wrist, he shattered it against the floor, releasing a spiraling burst of illusion-enhanced water essence. Tentacles of condensed water shot toward Feiyin like striking vipers, a last-ditch attempt to impale him through the heart.

But Feiyin didn't even blink.

He sidestepped the strike effortlessly.

To Feng Liu, it looked like Feiyin had read his movements before they happened.

Feiyin's eyes narrowed.

He had discovered something new the last few weeks that he was able to confirm in this battle, a deeper harmony between his oscillation sense and spiritual sense. The oscillation sense picked up the minute fluctuations in aura, intention and will. The spiritual sense grasped the breath and tension of the body. Before a body moved, the mind had to command it, and in that brief instant, Feiyin could perceive the flicker of killing intent or directional impulse. When layered together, those two senses created a window, barely a heartbeat long, but enough for him to do as he want.

Feiyin stood over Feng Liu's broken form, breath steady, eyes empty. Mercy had left him. Sorrow had left him. What remained was the bitter truth, the boy in those memories had died long ago. What lay beneath him now was the monster that had crawled out of that grave.

He didn't speak as he grabbed Feng Liu by the ankle and dragged him back into the center of the misted chamber.

First, he broke his arms. Bone snapped like twigs under his fists. Then his legs, until the twisted limbs hung useless. Feng Liu screamed and laughed all the same, blood bubbling at the corners of his lips.

"You think this makes you better than me?!" Feng Liu choked out, voice cracking. "You'll become just like me! You'll see! One day, you'll want something so badly you'll cross every line!"

Feiyin looked down at him, blood splattered across his face, and smiled, not with cruelty, but with something deeper, colder. "I already am."

If it's to keep them safe...

But behind the cold, something stirred. Images flickered in his mind. Hui, laughing with bright blue eyes, full of life and warmth. The way she hummed while cooking, stirring the pot with both focus and joy. The times they sat beneath the shade of the tree on the hill, watching the sunset, teasing each other over fragrant rice or Yue attempt to cut vegetables. She was a light in a world that so often felt dark.

Then came the memory of her still body, cold, twisted, defiled. Her mouth parted in a silent cry that had never been heard. Her hands curled as if they had struggled to hold onto something—anything—before the end.

Feiyin's hands trembled as he lowered his gaze back to the man beneath him.

Feng Liu snarled through his broken teeth, spitting blood. "Then what are you waiting for?! DO IT!"

Feiyin took out a blade, not his saber, but a small utility knife, and castrated him in one clean stroke. The scream that followed echoed like something not of this world, guttural and raw, a beast's cry torn from a human throat.

"That's for Hui," Feiyin whispered, voice devoid of mercy.

Only then did he unsheathe his saber, coating it in his intent as the edges darkened.

One clean arc. The blade shimmered in the dim light.

Feng Liu's head flew free, rolling across the floor until it stopped, expression frozen in something between agony and ecstasy.

Feiyin stood still, letting the blood drip from the edge of his blade.

Then he bent down, grabbed the severed head by the hair, and tied it in a cloth before placing a preserving talisman on it, then put it in his storage pouch.

He whispered, more to himself than to the corpse, "Hui, you can sleep well now."

In his mind, he pictured her grave beneath the old tree, high on the hill that overlooked the valley bathed in sunlight. He could still see the way the wind rustled the grass around the carved trunk, the way the sun dipped just below the horizon in that spot she always loved to sit and nap at during dusk.

The only thing left... is the sect.

Then he turned, walking alone into the mist, saber humming at his side, his steps lighter than before despite the dark look in his eyes, heading to the open gate on the other side.