Li Yi Nuo stared at the man she only knew as Judgment’s Gale and tried to decide what to do. She refused to let it show on her face, but his last words had frightened her. They hadn’t been boastful, the way she would have thought that something like that would sound. He’d sounded like a man earnestly pleading with someone not to make a terrible, terrible mistake. Worse still, he was calm. He was far, far too calm for a man who should be expecting at least the possibility of violence. There was a stillness to him, and that stillness spoke to a bone-deep resolve to do what had to be done, even if meant doing things he didn’t want to do. Her heart told her to just let it go and run away as fast as she could. He’d let her. She knew that much. He’d all but said it. He didn’t want the fight.

Of course, if she ran away, she would fail in her mission. She would dishonor her master and his faith in her. She’d never be able to return to the Vermilion Blade Sect. Yet, if she didn’t, elders would die by the score so she could avoid facing the consequences of her cowardice. For all intents and purposes, he anointed you as the young mistress of the Vermilion Blade Sect, her master had said. It might be an honor, but it was also a responsibility. She couldn’t let her fear, however rational it might be, divert her from her course. She had been tasked to bring this man back to the sect. That’s what she would do. As if he could read her very thoughts and intentions, Judgment’s Gale looked at her with an expression of boundless sadness.

“So be it,” he said.

Li Yi Nuo summoned a spear from her storage ring, one of the treasures that had been bestowed on her. It was a heavens chasing spear. It was the kind of weapon that most cultivators could only dream about possessing. Weapons like those could turn the tide in a battle. She studied him as he gave the spear an interested look. Will he relent rather than face such a weapon? He shrugged at her and summoned a spear of his own. It was all she could do not to weep in frustration. He’d summoned a heavens chasing spear of his own. She couldn’t even imagine where he, a wandering cultivator, had gotten such a thing. She watched the way he held the spear, the way he moved it, and quiet dread passed through her soul. He didn’t just possess a uniquely powerful spear. Someone had trained him with spears.

***

Sen watched Li Yi Nuo tense up when he summoned his spear. He wasn’t sure what she’d expected. She’d gotten out a nice spear, so he’d done the same. He kept trying to think of some way to talk her back from the cliff, but he got the impression that she was doing this for reasons other than wanting to fight him. He sensed her cycling for a kind of qi he didn’t recognize. She swept her spear in a horizontal arc that looked very familiar to Sen. Something that resembled one of his own wind blades shot at him. Yet, instead of a mostly translucent wing of qi, this was the color of blood and even seemed to have hints of metal in it.

“Huh,” said Sen. “That’s new.”

***

Based on the stories she’d heard, Li Yi Nuo had expected Judgment’s Gale to explode into a flurry of violence. Instead, he’d just given her a mildly quizzical look and not even cycled any qi. That was fine by her. If he was willing to give her an opportunity to launch a technique out of overconfidence, that was his mistake. She’d considered several options. In the end, she’d gone with what she knew best. The technique that had given her sect its name. The vermilion blade. She’d struggled with it for a long time because it called for not one but two kinds of qi. Granted, it only needed a little metal qi, but even summoning that small amount of qi had proven an arduous challenge for someone with an air qi affinity. Learning to fuse those qi types the right way had nearly cost her a leg once when the technique failed to form properly. Still, she had persevered and mastered the technique.

When she’d launched it, she’d assumed he’d take on that aspect of grim iciness she’d seen when he first appeared. What she got was him studying the lethal technique with interest as it careened toward him. This isn’t how people fight, she thought. What is wrong with him? He’s not even trying to defend himself. If he had been planning on meeting the technique with one of his own, he was far too late to make that happen. If he meant to evade, he should have already started moving. All he could do now was simply take the strike and hope it didn’t cut him in half. Li Yi Nuo was starting to think that she’d been afraid of nothing. Maybe he’d taken credit for things he’d never done. Maybe bringing him back to the sect wouldn’t be that hard. Just as a sliver of hope woke up inside her, Li Yi Nuo felt her insides shrivel.

Faster than she’d ever even imagined was possible, he was blazing with qi. Lightning erupted around the head of his spear with so much intensity that it hurt her eyes. She felt more than saw that spearhead crash down on her technique and lightning ripped it apart from the inside out. Everything went white as pain ripped through her skull, courtesy of the backlash from a broken technique. Despair supplanted hope as she finally saw that he hadn’t been trying to boast or intimidate his way out of this fight. It had never been a real fight. There were perhaps two or three other cultivators at her level in the sect who could, with preparation, do what he’d just done with such offhanded ease. She instinctively lashed out with her spear to keep the inevitable attack at bay as she tried to regain her equilibrium. When her mind and vision cleared, she expected to be on the receiving of that flurry of violence that hadn’t appeared before. It never came. Instead, he was standing exactly where he was before and giving her a look she couldn’t quite parse.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

***

Oh, come on, thought Sen. Come on! Take the hint. Tell me you changed your mind. Then we can talk about that sweet technique you just used.

***

Why is he just standing there like that? Is he mocking me? Watching him crush her technique that way had convinced Li Yi Nuo that any pure contest of qi between them was not going to go her way. If she could get close enough, though, she might be able to create an opening. Clenching her jaw, she launched herself forward with her qinggong technique. She felt a moment of legitimate outrage when she saw Judgment’s Gale roll his eyes. She suffused the heavens chasing spear with her wind qi, which would make her strikes swifter and leave cuts even if she didn’t connect. She brought the spear down in a brutal overhand swing that was stopped cold. She felt a surge of triumph as a cut opened along one of his cheeks. That sense of triumph didn’t last long as he looked at her, shrugged, and spoke.

“Alright.”

Her blood ran cold as he suffused his spear with water qi and not tiny amounts like she normally used with metal. He was wielding water qi like someone who had a water qi affinity. No, she thought. He can use more than one kind of qi? She’d suspected that this fight might be hopeless, but now she knew. Multiple qi users were basically legends. Everyone supposedly knew it was possible, but no one ever really pulled it off. This entire mission had been a failure before she’d ever even left the sect. Now, she was stuck in a fight that she had started and could not win. She unleashed a flurry of strikes and met a wall. Everything was blocked. Every block left her hands feeling numb. How strong is this man? She felt her frustration mounting as he didn’t even try to attack, contenting himself with defense.

She tried to bring down another overhand strike with all of her strength and everything from her fingertips to her shoulders went numb as the strike was simply stopped. She only had enough time to register that he’d somehow caught her spear by the haft before her intuition tried to warn her. While she’d been wasting precious mental energy trying to process what had just happened, he’d swung the blunt end of his spear around. There was another explosion of white as the haft connected with her side. She shook her head and tried to bring the world back into focus. Glancing around, she found herself in a pile of splintered wood and bark. She’d been tossed through a tree. Panic got her to her feet, even if half her ribs felt as splintered as that tree looked. Li Yi Nuo looked around wildly only to see Judgment’s Gale standing in the exact same place he’d been standing for the entire fight. His own spear was gone, no doubt stored, and he was looking at her spear.

She couldn’t understand what he was doing. He should have followed up after that hit. She’d been stunned and helpless. What game is he playing? Does he mean to humiliate me before he kills me? She ran through the list of weapons and treasures she’d been given. Having seen some of his true capacity, she doubted that most of them would even slow him down. There was one last option, though.

***

This is a really nice spear, thought Sen. It probably wasn’t good enough to give to Uncle Kho, but Sen decided he needed to start keeping an eye open for something that would suit the old spear master. He glanced over at the sect woman who was giving him looks that ranged from confusion to murderous rage and calculation. She's not quick on the uptake, thought Sen. I may have to just tell her what to do to get out of this. Before Sen could act on that plan, Li Yi Nuo threw something at him.

***

The Thousand Stone talisman left her hand and flew straight at the man. She felt it activate and heaved a sigh of relief when she heard him grunt. It was just a matter of time now. She’d held off on using it because that talisman was insanely expensive, but that didn’t matter anymore. All she wanted at this point was to survive. A stabbing pain in her side stole her breath and made her vision tunnel. That throw had not been advisable for someone with shattered ribs. She had time now, though. The talisman would keep adding weight until it drove him to the ground. It would contain him there long enough to get the qi suppression treasure on him. She looked over, expecting to see him sprawled on the ground. Instead, he barely looked like he was under strain at all. He looked over at her.

“That’s a fun trick,” he told her.

Then, the end of the spear he was holding, her spear, turned some color that was perhaps a thousand times darker than black, and she had purple afterimages in her sight every time she looked at it. He swung the spear once. There was a noise that made Li Yi Nuo feel like she’d been present for the murder of some celestial being of peace and kindness. Earth qi exploded in every direction, kicking up a storm of dust and rocks that pelted her. When the dust settled, the man was back to looking at her spear. This was beyond futile and humiliating. This was a shame that would stain her and her sect when the story of her utter failure spread. If she could explain this to her master, he would understand. Defeat at the hands of a man like this was to be expected. If she’d only known the truth. Then, he spoke.

“How convenient would it be if someone said that they changed their mind and preferred not to have a duel?” he asked, turning an annoyed expression toward her. “Imagine all of the problems that would solve.”

Li Yi Nuo’s mind tried to go several different directions at once. Part of her thought it was some kind of trick. Part of her wanted to weep in relief. Part of her reminded her about her duty. The end result was a confusing mass of half-formed thoughts that didn’t go anywhere. Is he trying to give me a way out?

“Wait,” she finally blurted out. “What?”