Yifan’s eyes shifted again, locking his gaze on Luo, who reciprocated… then he burst out laughing.

  “You sound like a dying geezer making outlandish claims to delay your imminent death. Kowtow, juniors, and I may be so merciful as to grant it swiftly. I don’t even want this “senior brother” anymore, Luo, I just want to kill him and you for trying to stop me. Unless of course you want to kill him for me, in which case I will grant you the wondrous mercy of only fifty years of servitude.”

  Luo shifted in place.

  He began shouting at Ming Yifan, “I will do no such thing, you scoundrel, every commitment I have made is with the full chest!”

  Jiang interrupted him, “Do you fools truly believe I’m merely posturing?”

  Neither answered. An awkward silence hung heavily in the air.

  Fuck, I can’t increase the value of the terms of my capture if Ming Yifan doesn’t play ball. Fine then, better the devil you know.

  “Ming Yifan’s power is to—”

  He lunged forward like a hawk swooping down to claim a morsel that had been tastily exposed for far too long.

  “...make objects—”

  Yifan’s fist collided with Luo’s crossed hands, pressuring the bearded man’s hair back like water parting for the winds and shape of the talon crossing beneath its surface. Luo was thrown back some ten feet, his soles placed just in front of where the wall had been.

  “...reappear.”

  Jiang had meant to say “...make objects disappear and then reform them in place,” but that would have taken too many words. Luo appeared to grasp the meaning and eyed his feet cautiously, knowing if he were pressured any farther back Yifan could reform the wall on top of him.

  Yifan laughed with his full chest. “You cannot possibly understand the true meaning of my scripture you ignorant fools!”

  He’s lying to sow doubt in Luo about the nature of his powers.

  “You ignorant worm!” Jiang shouted angrily, moving toward the wall himself, the fighters eying him and each other cautiously, unsure of what he was doing.

  “Do you honestly believe your scripture is above my grasp? Have you been lobotomized? Any child could understand the game of peekaboo.” He was moving closer to Ming Yifan’s side of the wall, mere feet from the edge now.

  Neither Luo nor Ming Yifan spoke as Jiang moved ever-closer to the wall. He was one foot away. Six inches. His foot passed over the edge.

  “Now, arrogant worm, kill me if you dare!”

  Jiang’s whole body was inside the dark patch of earth left by the crumbling wall that had once stood there for some thousands of years.

  In an instant the world went dark.

  *BANG*

  The wall exploded back into place, dust flying everywhere as it was unable to occupy the space where Jiang had been.

  In the next instant the wall disappeared leaving only the dust formed from its explosion.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  In the next instant the dust was gone, leaving only Jiang and the stunned faces of Ming Yifan and Luo who vigorously stroked his beard.

  Jiang smiled widely, “Did you think you would be able to kill me, worm? You aren’t fit even to live under the stones my feet grace on the path to the shitter. Be gone, and perhaps I may spare you to grovel another day.”

  The barbarian’s face grew red but he did not speak, likely contemplating whether it was really the right move to act on his rage. On the one hand, Jiang had insulted him grievously, but on the other Jiang had survived what should have been a fatal attack. It was likely Ming had other tricks up his sleeve, but if Jiang could survive a stone wall appearing on top of him without any qi signature or appearance of casting a technique, that made him an extremely high-level cultivator. It meant Jiang was either hiding his qi and techniques, or possessed a martial body.

  Jiang read Ming like an open book. He assumed Jiang had a martial body and binding vow and was incapable of casting active techniques, instead relying on passive ones. In reality, Jiang could cast techniques with sufficient qi, but was currently relying on his void-forged body to survive these low-level attacks.

  I will play into this misconception.

  Ming smiled. “You boast so greatly, senior, and yet have shown me no evidence of strength. Your body may be strong, but your techniques are lacking. I know you as a fraud who claims the robust strength of iron while possessing only the front-facing strength of a stack of paper. I will blow you aside, senior brother. You have insulted me greatly, and for that I will make you suffer.”

  He smiled wider, showing his teeth in something more resembling a monkey baring its fangs than any kind of human expression.

  “Indeed, I will chain you prone beneath my outhouse and we will see how long you last.”

  The tension held like chicken in the air;

  Dust exploded back into the scene because farm-grown chickens can’t really fly.

  “But that day will be tomorrow.”

  Yifan’s voice grew distant.

  “Look forward to your reckoning! Worm!”

  The wall reformed around Jiang, who slowly shimmied out of the Jiang-shaped hole left in it, moving closer to an undamaged but dusty Luo who was brushing the dust out of his beard and patting down his robes, dust still in the air rendering the effort useless. He threw up his hands in frustration when they finally came into eyeshot of each other, which is to say they bumped chests and then quickly jumped back six inches.

  “We need to get out of here!” Luo said in a moderate but stern voice. Indeed, Jiang knew that Ming did not flee out of terror, but rather because the opportunity had proven itself more costly than anticipated. He had his fun and found a new plaything for later, but with other vultures certain to be closing in and a relatively tough senior emerging from an ancient tomb it just didn’t make sense to stay.

  Jiang quickly moved to Luo’s back, who violently but painlessly clenched his arms against Jiang and pulled his hands over the torso to secure his passenger, then jumped into the air and began effortlessly flying away.

  “Yifan is much smarter than he looks.” Jiang said once they took off. The lack of vegetation around the prison was especially apparent from the air. It was almost a desert.

  “He knows he can’t afford to die.” Luo responded distantly, almost as if he felt the same way.

  “He’s too important to his sect, if he dies the whole sect does too, and if he’s injured he won’t be able to protect them. With your apparent strength and my presence, it became clear this may not have been an easy fight. But know this, he will be after you, and he will make every effort to keep his promise. Watch yourself closely, brother.”

  “Why is such an important man out picking fights with random elders?” Jiang mused.

  If he’s so important he shouldn’t be risking himself like that.

  “If he doesn’t his sect won’t last. The most recent apocalypse has left us all resource-starved and put most sects at risk.”

  “On the other hand, chaos is a ladder.” Jiang finished.

  “Indeed,” Luo continued, “If he’s able to recruit enough elders his sect will rise in the rankings, and with so many cultivators dead or missing, there are many sects that are too weak to survive on their own. Any wise master would take advantage of that.”

  “And is our master wise?”

  Luo made an amused grunt.

  “Indeed he is.”

  Pine trees began flying by as they increased in speed. The scenery was blurring together now, and they were ascending to just below the clouds. Mountains in the distance began to dominate the view, crinkled, massive things clearly not formed by natural plate tectonics. Even the lakes that dotted the landscape looked more like craters filled with water than natural bodies, their edges rough and their placement scattered almost haphazardly.