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“But what if I were to insist on going to the staging station now?” Lin Jingxin asserted, “Are you going to have me bound in chains and dragged there instead?”

“What do you think?” Lin An deflected with a question of his own.

“Tell me, uncle,” Lin Jingxin persuaded, “Is our family’s interest more important than justice for all mankind?”

Lin An’s face shifted at that. He exhaled wearily and placed a hand on the shoulder of one of the family’s brightest young prodigies and said, “None of them are. What matters above all else is the continuity of our race.”

“But Li Mu, he is a—” Lin Jingxin protested.

“—a Xenos. Of that, there is no question, nor will there ever be,” said Lin An firmly.

“What did you just say?!” Ye Ying’s swelling eyes illustrated her disbelief.

The icy aloofness the beautiful female captain of the Trailblazers maintained before others usually were gone in the presence of her closest family. With her candor and emotions in full display, she gasped with unreserved surprise, “Li Mu is a Xenos?!”

“So says the Oracle Disk of Divine Illumination. Do you doubt it?” Ye He countered.

“Huh?! The divine relic of the legion making such claims?!”

Ye Ying was stunned.

“How could this be?!”

“B-But! But the villagers swore on their own life that Li Mu birthed from a fruit of a Tree of Eternity!” Ye Ying persisted defiantly, “Surely Trees of Eternity don’t lie!”

“Trees of Eternity don’t lie,” Ye He responded placidly, “But the simple and common folk of Oststern are gullible and impressionable enough to think that what they see is true. Don’t you think that there have been too many irregularities with Li Mu?”

“Um…” Words seemed to have gotten stuck in Ye Ying’s throat and nothing she tried could make anything come out.

For good reason. Li Mu was born as an adult instead of an infant. Then in just four months, he possessed incredible powers that allowed him to resist both the Moon Monarch and his army of the dead Children of the Moon. Ye Ying could barely contradict all those facts. All she could argue were her debatable claims that Li Mu was a kind or a good person.

Nothing about her interactions with Li Mu during their short time together suggested that he was anything remotely evil and wicked.

“Satisfied?” Ye He, “Now, while I’m sure you can well let this Li Mu fellow fight his own battles—both proverbial and literal ones—there is nothing else you can do for him anymore. You can go to the staging station, but it’s too late. Come back to Yehauptstad. The Sacred Deathmatch starts in a year. For this reason, the head of house has made his decision: you’re to set off for Grandiflora Summit at once and begin preparations for that.”

“B-But— But— what of Xiao Jianfei and the rest of my squad!? If Li Mu is indeed a Xenos, the others are innocent! Surely they’re all fine?” She yelped, remembering how Lin Jingxin was also whisked away by a senior member of his family. Putting two and two together, it was obvious enough what could be going on while she remained here, bandying words with her sister.

“I’m afraid I don’t know.”

Being a straightforward person all her life and the person slated to be the next head of house, Ye He never cared to sugarcoat her words. Fierce and bold, she never wavered or let her scruples get in her way of candor.

“I-I— I need to see Li Mu one last time. Is he at the Governor’s court?” Ye Ying did not want to believe it. She was determined to see him.

Ye He glowered at her sister with disbelief.

She stared at Ye Ying, both intently and quietly, a frown forming on her forehead. “How long have you known this Li Mu? Besotted with him you might be, you’d do well for just forget about him and perish any thoughts of seeing him again.”

That struck Ye Ying like a hammer. Stunned for one split-second, her face blazed with shades of pink. “What in Heaven’s name are you thinking about, sister!?”

“What I think about is irrelevant. What is, is whether or not you know what you’re thinking of,” said Ye He. Gifted with a stare that pierces as keenly as a blade, Ye He carried an uncanny presence that could intimidate all lesser men—or women—in her presence. She glared at Ye Ying, saying, “You’re not to see Li Mu again. Ever. What’s more, the top brass has issued their orders: Li Mu is to be executed swiftly. He could already be dead by now.”

She only just finished speaking, when—

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Someone was rapping the door furiously from outside.

One of Ye He’s sword maidens stepped into the room. She strode to her liege and whispered something into her ears.

Ye He’s expression stirred not one bit at all. “Understood. That will be all, thank you.”

“What’s going on, sister?” Ye Ying asked anxiously.

“Li Mu,” said Ye He, “He’s gone.”

Governor’s court.

The dungeons.

The pungent smack of blood in the air did not make this place any more desirable at all.

“You’re a veteran in the military, Xiao! Surely you know by now that no one survives all seventy-two methods of torture we have here! Yield! Yield save yourself and save us some time too while you’re at it!”

The flaming torches that kept the underground cells alighted and filled with their angry crackles.

Lei Cang sat at one end of the torture chamber, grinning in his chair facing the wooden cross.

Tied to this cross was none other than a bloodied and heavily-flayed Xiao Jianfei who has not a square inch of skin still intact below his neckline. More than six hours had elapsed since the afternoon up until now and the various methods of torture tested on the exemplary lieutenant of the Trailblazer Corps had reduced him into nothing more than a bleeding bag of bones still teetering on the brink of life.

If he had heard what Lei Cang just said, Xiao Jianfei gave him no response at all.

His head hung over his shoulders with his arms and legs tied to the cross. He couldn’t move. He didn’t move, aside from his heaving chest as he drew in mouthfuls of air while frothy blood dribbled out his lips. He would rather just stay motionless and recover as much strength as he could.

“Stubborn, eh?”

Lei Cang shook his head. “We were a team, Xiao,” he said, “I know. My coming here out of nowhere and occupying the captain’s seat might have soured things between us before we even met. But I know how good you are. You deserve your own command, and I could have asked for no better deputy than you. If it were not for this, we could have been a very great tag team…”

“Insulting,” Xiao Jianfei spat all of a sudden.

“What?!”

“Insulting. It’s insulting to know that we’ve been brothers-in-arms…” Xiao Jianfei lifted his head strenuously, his scarred and bloodied face fraught with such disgust that Lei Cang felt stung with intense shame.

“For one Li Mu? Just for one Li Mu, you dare antagonize me?!”

Lei Cang’s patience was wearing thin.

He rose from his chair, his face a sheet of ice. Malice gleamed in his eyes as he reached for a torture instrument.

“Li Mu? He’s honorable enough, I’d give him that. You’re nowhere near him, Lei Cang. But what I’m doing, it’s not just for him,” Xiao Jianfei groaned. Quietly, he channeled his powers to restore some of his strength. He looked at Lei Cang and smirked, “All I care about is truth and honor! Nothing more… You’ve forgotten it, have you… The oath we swore when we enlisted… On bended knee, we swear to defend the weak and helpless, to serve the good and both, to serve with strength and honor, For this day and all dawns of Men to come!”

Those words were enough to strike a stake in Lei Cang’s heart.

He was about to retort something else when the sounds of knocking at the door stopped him.

...

“I thought I left orders to not be disturbed when I’m interrogating! Are you looking for trouble?!” Lei Cang glowered from the other side of the door.

“Sir, it’s the report coming from the staging station!” cried a voice from outside.

Lei Cang snorted. “Very well. Come in.”

A soldier clad in a dark surcoat and armor with the mask of a demon’s face entered. With his gaze lowered, he handed a jade-hewn plate and on the plate was a jade strip. It was pulsing with an obsidian glow.

One of his teacher’s communication jade strips?!

Lei Cang immediately took the jade strip and channeled his power through it. At the first impulse of information flowing into his mind, his expression twisted with shock. “Li Mu had escaped?!”

He stood there, still clutching the jade strip, and contemplated his options.

“If Li Mu is still alive, then Xiao Jianfei needs to be alive.

“He would make good use of this pawn.”

He spun on his heels abruptly and paced toward Xiao Jianfei with a vile grin on his face. “What did you say just now? Truth and honor, is it not? Very well, Xiao Jianfei. Last I checked, you have a daughter who’s just fresh off her one-year-old birthday, is it not? Fliegenstern, if memory serves.”

Xiao Jianfei’s face went pallid white.

...

For the first time since he was brought into this dungeon, he felt true fear and anxiety.

“Here’s an offer: admit to my version of events and help me in denouncing Li Mu, and you can walk out of this dungeon a free man. You can even go on being my deputy. You know who’s my teacher and heritage. Side with me and untold riches and glories shall be at your fingertips. You’re a good and capable man; all you need is just an opportunity to let yourself shine and I can provide that. Take my offer and do as I say. Your family and child will be safe as well. What say you?”

Lei Cang slid closer, his faint, whispering voice as tempting as a piper’s tune beckoning Xiao Jianfei.

The look on Xiao Jianfei’s face was enough for Lei Cang to guess that he had found the former’s weakness.

The Trailblazer lieutenant said nothing as if he was pondering.

“As a Trailblazer officer of modest background and provenance, there’s nothing else you can do,” added Lei Cang who was only too eager to apply more pressure. In case you still don’t know, even Lin Jingxin and Ye Ying, both the progenies of Houses Lin and Ye, have chosen to stay quiet. These are perilous waters, you’re sailing into; far deeper and darker than you can imagine. For Li Mu’s sake, you’ve endured so much. No one will call you a traitor after all these. But even a fool can see that your senseless defiance is nothing but a futile attempt to stave off the inevitable.”

No one else lingered in this chamber except Xiao Jianfei, Lei Cang, and the soldier still bearing the jade plate.

A palpably awkward tension pervaded the small space.

A quarter of an hour passed in silence. Xiao Jianfei finally lifted his head again.

“So, Xiao?” Lei Cang pressed, “What say you?”

“I’ve made a vow on the badge of honor I proudly wear on my chest every single day since the first day I was made a Trailblazer—no—since the first day, I enlisted as a soldier to serve the realms of Man. I swore to defend our race. I swore to protect the weak and helpless. To uphold justice and seek only the truth,” there was not a trace of doubt in Xiao Jianfei’s resolved glare. “A filth like you won’t understand the true mettle that real warriors of Man embody.”

Lei Cang turned livid. “Think of your wife and children, Xiao Jianfei! Don’t you realize what fate they would suffer because of your reckless stubbornness!?”

“If this is what I should sacrifice as a true warrior of Men,” an unfazed Xiao Jianfei muttered with steely boldness. “So be it then. I only pray that my family will forgive my decision.”

“Why, you… You and your blasted intransigence!” Lei Cang glowered furiously. Deciding to not waste time, he reached for a scalpel. Aiming it at Xiao Jianfei’s forehead, he thrust it forward, saying, “Very well then. I’ll deal with you first. Perhaps after this, I’ll pay your wife and child a visit. Once I’m done having my pleasures with them, I might send what remains of them down into Hell for a reunion with you!”

Xiao Jianfei closed his eyes, giving up all manners of resistance.

CLANK!

The scalpel flew out of Lei Cang’s grasp with such force that it impaled the wall.

Lei Cang stared at the black-surcoat soldier with astonishment. “What the hell did you just do?! Have you gone mad?!”

It was the masked soldier who had knocked the blade out of his hand.

“No. Wait. Who the hell are you?!”

Realizing something amiss, Lei Cang staggered backward.