Deep into the cold night, two soldiers stood in a quiet vigil at the grand gates to the royal palace, gazing out into the rainy streets with unfading focus.

  The pair had slight refuge from the rain in the form of the gate’s overhanging tiles, but every few moments, an errant breeze would send the cold rain washing over them anyway.

  Despite the lack of comfort, neither of the guards raised a single complaint, nor did they allow their vigilance to falter.

  The position of gate guard to the royal palace wasn’t something that a soldier could seek out; instead, it was an opportunity presented to particularly patriotic and steadfast soldiers as a sort of reward. And with how well-paying this position was, no soldier of common birth could afford to take it lightly.

  As the pair of guards stared silently out towards the streets and rooftops of the capital, a vague figure slowly became visible through the rain.

  Within a few moments, it became clear that the figure in the distance was indeed approaching the palace gates. Exchanging a brief look between one another, one of the two guards took a step forward.

  As the figure came closer, its appearance became clearer. They wore a thick, straw raincoat and hat that obfuscated their age and gender.

  “Hold there.” The guard who stepped forward gestured for the strange visitor in the raincoat to stop. “What’s your business here, at this hour?”

  Jun Li paused a few steps away, momentarily unsure how to phrase her intent. “I’m… looking for Ren Liwei. He should be expecting me.”

  Somewhat surprised to hear Ren Liwei’s name from this visitor, the guard exchanged a brief glance with his peer, making sure there was no miscommunication.

  “I’m afraid we’ve not been informed of anything like that.” One of the guards flatly stated. “I can look into it when we change shifts, but… I highly doubt we wouldn’t have been informed to look out for a guest of Young Master Ren.”

  Listening to the guard speak, Jun Li began to feel sick with frustration. ‘…threatening my family and demanding I come to you… and you hide yourself behind guarded gates…’

  For a long moment, Jun Li remained silent, and the two guards found themselves overcome by a sudden sense of danger that prevented them from speaking further.

  Quietly, the two prepared to react to anything, stepping further out into the rain while retaining control of the path to the gates.

  Jun Li slowly settled her breathing and reminded herself why she was here. Raising the brim of her straw hat to make her face more visible, Jun Li spoke steadily. “Just step aside, I’m going to see Ren Liwei.”

  Almost as soon as Jun Li stopped speaking, one of the guards slid a halberd off their back and, in one smooth motion, sent it crashing down towards Jun Li’s head.

  From Jun Li’s perspective, the halberd looked painfully slow as it followed its trajectory, as if it were not air, but water it was swiping through.

  The guard in front of Jun Li had reached his position through a long career as a soldier, but even so, he was no Cultivator.

  Uncompelled to respond with any tact or technique, Jun Li simply stepped forward and thrust out her hand faster than the guard’s weapon could fall.

  Before he could react, the guard was thrown backwards, crashing into the sturdy gates of the palace grounds as a crumpled mess.

  Collapsing to the muddy ground, the man struggled to fill his forcibly emptied lungs, and unsteadily leaned forward on his hands and knees.

  For a moment, the guard teetered on the brink of passing out, watching the overlapping metal plates of his armor fall into the mud one by one, warped and torn from their bindings by Jun Li’s strike.

  Despite Jun Li having so severely assaulted his comrade, the other guard did not move to cover for him, or more accurately, he couldn’t.

  The moment Jun Li struck one of the guards, Little Yun shot out of the shadows towards the other, instantly and silently restraining the man with vicious force.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  At first, the man restrained by Little Yun tried to escape the snake's grasp, but what began as a genuine strain quickly devolved into helplessly struggling in the rainy mud, trying not to pass out as the snake’s constriction prevented his lungs from expanding.

  Tilting her head towards the restrained guard, slowly having his life snuffed out by Little Yun’s constriction, Jun Li spoke. “Hey… don’t kill him.”

  After a small delay, Little Yun seemingly understood Jun Li’s intent and loosened its grip. Jun Li carefully watched as the man slumped limply onto the ground, half-conscious, but alive.

  Jun Li sighed, feeling a bit of guilt at how things had played out. “It’s not like I could have just turned back…”

  Jun Li stepped further towards the gate before noticing, the man she had initially struck was just barely hanging on to consciousness, and had remained on his hands and knees. “What… do you intend to do to Young Master Ren…!?”

  Jun Li struggled to find an immediate answer to the man’s question. If the man had continued to display overt hostility towards her, she might not have felt the need to answer.

  Yet the question seemed to come from a place of genuine concern for a figure the guard respected.

  “I don’t really know what I’m going to do to him… I’m not sure if I’d be able to forgive him, even if he begged…” Jun Li stepped up to the wide, metal-studded wooden gate and placed her hands on it. “Well… Ren Liwei started this, and he’ll decide when it ends...”

  Feeling the gate was locked, Jun Li hooked her fingers into the seam between the two doors of the gate and braced herself against the ground.

  As Jun Li began to push, the sound of the wooden gates groaning and creaking filled the air. With a deep breath, Jun Li dredged up the fullest extent of her strength; the dense Internal Qi she had refined deeply into the Early Crimson Palace stage surged through her Meridians and slowly seeped through her pores to coat her body in an invisible pressure.

  Within seconds, the creaking of the wood gave way to the sound of bolts and nails popping loose as the sliding bolt that held the gate shut was torn from its fastening by the immense pressure forcing the doors apart.

  The instant the lock broke, the gate was thrown wide open, its imposing doors pushed so quickly through the air that the gently falling rain twisted into a sodden whirlwind.

  With the threshold to the palace grounds opened, Jun Li slowly restrained her strength once again.

  As she stretched her limbs, Jun Li keenly felt the tension in her joints and tendons as they were pushed beyond the former limits she had trained within.

  Between the time she had received Ren Liwei’s message to now, Jun Li had diligently refined her condition to its peak, leaving no aches, pains, fatigue, or exhaustion in her way.

  But even so… Jun Li felt weighed down by an invisible pressure as she looked out over the vast palace grounds.

  At first, she intended to seek out Ren Liwei with all possible haste, yet, perhaps inevitably, Jun Li found her attention drawn to the immensity of the royal palace.

  From this close, the palace seemed even larger than it had been even in her exaggerated memories.

  Even deep into the night, as the city fell asleep, the palace shone like a beacon, light spilling from near every one of its opulent paper windows. Owing to the unfading light of the palace, anyone in the capital could observe the palace with clarity at any hour of the day. Perhaps to some, it was a symbol of stability, but to others, and to Jun Li herself…

  ‘When you pile up wealth and status so high… it becomes this unsightly, huh…?’ Standing so close, Jun Li felt all the envy and inferiority she suffered slowly turn to scorn. ‘…what an ugly thing to be jealous of…’ Averting her gaze from the palace, Jun Li heard a voice call out to her from afar.

  “Overcome with awe? I suppose it can’t be helped. It’s not every day someone of your kind gets to stand on such prestigious ground.” Hearing Ren Liwei’s voice, Jun Li closed her eyes and took a deep breath, knowing that her anger and disgust would be nothing but a hindrance if she let it guide her.

  Peering out into the rain-sodden gardens of the palace grounds, Jun Li saw a brightly lit garden pavilion, and a young man seated at a table inside.

  Calmly, Jun Li moved towards the pavilion, walking down the winding and roundabout paths of the garden as she silently observed Ren Liwei.

  Scanning Ren Liwei’s face, Jun Li didn’t take note of the derision in his expression, but instead, what caught her eye was how healthy he appeared.

  In Jun Li’s memories, he always seemed haggard and irritable, with dark circles under his eyes. But now, he showed no sign of fatigue at all.

  Outside of his unusually tall stature, Ren Liwei now seemed like any other noble child Jun Li had seen.

  “You seem to be doing well for yourself…” Jun Li commented as she approached the edge of the pavilion.

  “And you seem filthier than ever. Did you pull that raincoat out of the garbage?” Ren Liwei smiled brightly as he spoke, overflowing with cathartic joy.

  Momentarily speechless, Jun Li sighed and hardened her gaze. “Where is Duan Shu?”

  Wearing an uninterested expression, Ren Liwei spoke at a slovenly pace. “Duan Shu…? Hmm… was that the thing’s name? I can’t say I take much interest in learning the name of every single gutter rat I stumble across.”

  Narrowing his eyes, Ren Liwei laced his voice with venom. “Needless to say, I don’t bother to remember every little detail of what happens to that kind of vermin when we cross paths.”

  Jun Li fell silent for a time, simply standing there in the rain. Eventually, she unfastened her raincoat and shrugged it to the ground, along with the straw hat that kept her dry.

  “Yeah…” Jun Li traced the edge of her Spatial Ring. “...You have to die.”