The silence that descended on the parade square was heavy, suffocating and tasted faintly of heated metal and impending violence.

  Li Yu’s question hung in the air like a blade pressed against a throat. “Are you trying to rob me?” Li Yu said again.

  Lord Valen’s face went through a complex series of contortions. First shock, that a junior would speak so plainly; then embarrassment, at being called out in front of the entire Alliance leadership; and finally, a cold, simmering rage that hardened his features into a mask of self-righteous indignation.

  Valen laughed. It was a short, sharp sound, devoid of any humor.

  “Robbery? You speak of robbery, child?” Valen shook his head, looking around at the other sect representatives and elders as if seeking commiseration for dealing with an unruly toddler. “I speak of salvation for us all. I speak of the survival of the human race on this continent.”

  He stepped forward, his crimson robes swirling around him. He raised his voice, pitching it so it would carry not just to Li Yu but to every soldier and disciple watching from the periphery.

  “We are at war, Li Yu. Perhaps in the Southern Continent you can play at war and do what you want. But here, we face extinction. Every resource, every weapon, every advantage must be utilized to its fullest potential for survival. To hoard a strategic asset like the Sky-Iron Dreadnought for personal vanity… it is not just selfish. It is a crime against the millions of innocents who live in fear of the demons.”

  Valen pointed a trembling finger at the massive form of Tekton.

  “That beast could save a city and more. It could turn the tide of a critical battle. In the hands of the House of Crimson Fang, with our centuries of beast-taming heritage, it would be a savior. In your hands? It is merely a pet with no direction. A ticking time bomb carried by a boy who doesn’t understand the weight of the lives depending on this. Are you willing to carry that burden?!.”

  He paused for effect, his eyes gleaming with the fervor of a man who believes his own lies.

  “I am not trying to rob you, Fellow Daoist Li. I am trying to prevent a tragedy here on a massive scale. If you have even a shred of conscience, even a drop of humanity, you would hand over the beast control seal to the Alliance immediately. Do it for the widows. Do it for the orphans. Do it for the greater good.”

  A murmur ran through the crowd. Valen was a snake but he was a silver-tongued snake. His words struck a chord with the fearful and the desperate. Those who do not really know and have only been fighting in battles would side with him. Several representatives and elders nodded slowly, their eyes shifting from Valen to Li Yu with expectant looks.

  Li Yu watched the performance with a flat expression. He waited until the murmurs died down. He waited until Valen looked smugly satisfied. As though he had put on a masterclass in acting and righteous speech.

  Then, Li Yu yawned.

  It was a long, exaggerated yawn that involved stretching his arms over his head. He scratched his ear, looking bored out of his mind.

  “Are you finished?” Li Yu asked.

  Valen’s eye twitched. “You… do you have nothing to say to the suffering of the people?”

  “I have plenty to say,” Li Yu said, dropping his arms. The boredom vanished from his face, replaced by a cold, sharp indifference that cut through Valen’s hot rhetoric like ice water.

  “You talk about the good of the war. You talk about saving countless people. You talk about widows and orphans.” Li Yu took a step forward, his voice dropping to a conversational volume that somehow felt louder than shouting. “Let me be very clear with you, Valen. I don’t care.”

  The crowd gasped, especially the lower rank soldiers listening in. Shen Tu stiffened at Li Yu’s bluntness, not sure where he was going with this. To openly declare apathy in the face of the ‘righteous cause’ was political suicide.

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  “You mistaken many things. First of all, I didn’t come here to be a hero to save the masses,” Li Yu continued. “I didn’t come here because my heart bleeds for the Eastern Continent. I came here because there is a job to do.”

  “I came here to fight beasts, collect resources and get paid doing so. If everyone in this square dropped dead right now? I would sleep just fine tonight, probably better than most nights to be honest. I just met you all. I don’t know you. I don’t care about you. If your sect burns to the ground tomorrow? I’ll probably roast a marshmallow over the embers and savor the favor.”

  “You monster!” an Elder from a smaller sect shouted from the back, clearly an ally of Valen and emboldened by Valen’s stance.

  Li Yu’s eyes snapped to the heckler, silencing him instantly, before returning to Valen.

  “You call me a monster? I arrived here roughly a day ago. In that time, I walked into the Whispering Weald—a place your ‘experts’ were too terrified to approach. I confronted a beast tide that was threatening to overrun your precious defensive lines. I slaughtered countless beasts. I secured enough resources to fuel your armies for your ongoing war. And I tamed the calamity that terrified you all into inaction.”

  Li Yu pointed a finger at Valen’s chest.

  “And what were you doing while I was doing that, Valen? You were sitting in a meeting room, drinking tea and arguing about whose turn it was to die. You were doing absolutely nothing. The House of Crimson Fang, with all its ‘centuries of heritage,’ was hiding behind walls while I was out there cracking skulls.”

  “As far as I’m concerned,” Li Yu said, his voice dripping with disdain, “you and your clan are completely useless. You are parasites who wait for the work to be done so you can swoop in and claim the credit. You talk about being fit to control Tekton? Valen, based on what I’ve seen today, you aren’t even fit to carry my shoes.”

  The insult landed with the force of a physical blow. Never before had someone dared to speak so brazenly to Valen before. The threat of his clan and their power always prevented most from such a direct confrontation. These were words that were saved for private rooms with multiple isolation arrays.

  Valen’s face turned a deep ugly purple. The veins in his neck bulged against his collar. He was furious, this boy that just showed up today, dared to insult him in such a way. As someone who never had to consider others this was unacceptable. The face of the clan could not be insulted in such a way.

  “You arrogant little brat!” Valen roared, his composure cracking. “You dare insult the House of Crimson Fang? You dare insult a pillar of the Alliance? A pillar of this continent?!”

  Shen Tu gave him a look as those words came out. His thoughts were unknown but it was a deep look and not a kind one.

  Valen turned to the crowd, his arms spread wide as he continued appealing to the masses.

  “You see? You see his true colors! He is a selfish, arrogant devil! He has no loyalty to the Alliance! To this continent and its people. He has no honor! Elders! Fellow representatives! Sect Leaders! Are we to let this outsider insult us in our own home? Are we to let him hold a weapon of mass destruction hostage while he spits on our traditions?”

  Valen was casting a wide net, trying to drag the rest of the leadership into his personal feud. He knew he had allies he could count on joining him but he needed more to add even more pressure. He needed the weight of the collective to crush this one individual.

  Li Yu watched closely. This was exactly what he wanted. He didn’t speak this way or act this way out of anger or disgust. There was a plan behind his outburst.

  He let Valen scream. He let Valen rally. He wanted to see who would join him and step forward. Li Yu wanted to see who nodded in agreement. This would let him know where the rot was. Kael had given him a list of names, a dossier of corruption and cruelty on this continent but seeing it in person was different.

  “Lord Valen is right,” a thin rat-faced Elder stepped out from the crowd. He wore the robes of the Gray Wind Sect. “This boy is unstable. The beast must be secured.”

  “Agreed,” another voice chimed in. A burly man with a heavy hammer on his back. “The Southern Continent has always been wild. We must look out for our own interests. We cannot trust him with such power.”

  “Confiscate it!” a third voice shouted.

  One by one, the greedy, the envious and the politically aligned stepped forward. They formed a semi-circle behind Valen, a coalition of the willing. This was clearly something that has happened before in the past. They were all standing out with Valen, as though they had to make sure they got credit for doing so.

  They smelled blood. They smelled treasure for the taking, credit to be amassed. They looked at Tekton not as a living being but as a pile of merit points within their own alliances and power to be carved up.

  Shen Tu continued to stand where he was, his face dark but he did not speak. He was counting the faces too but with a different kind of calculation. He was seeing just how fractured his command really was. He had been aware but this was a good opportunity to see. Shen Tu and Li Yu seemed to have a mutual understanding with one another here.

  There was no ill will from Li Yu towards Shen Tu. Li Yu had grown up a bit now, he understood that being a leader was no simple task. Especially even more so when there were more people. He could tell that Shen Tu was also up to something and that was the reason he wasn’t stepping in. That’s how Li Yu would rather it be anyways, if Shen Tu stepped in, his own plans would be ruined.