Chapter 137: Not allowed to speak
Mark rushed out but did not dare get too close.
He was Body Refining, and the specific, honest arithmetic of that classification against two Blood Infusion Stage experts was not an arithmetic that required extended analysis — the particular, immediate conclusion of someone who has assessed the gap and has made the specific, rational decision to shout from a safe distance rather than contribute to the crater count.
"I say, you! How dare you cause trouble in the Grand Mansion? Don’t you know this mansion is under the protection of the White Knight Guild? You could be killed for such a crime!"
The announcement had the particular, formal quality of someone who has decided that invoking the correct institutional authority is the specific, available contribution he can make to this situation — the White Knight Guild’s name deployed with the particular, deliberate emphasis of someone hoping the name carries more immediate weight than the two Blood Infusion experts’ current behavior suggested they were willing to give it.
In moments, over a dozen guards had gathered behind him.
Mark was not confident. But he was less not-confident than he had been thirty seconds ago, and the specific, marginal improvement of having a dozen guards at his back was the particular, available variety of reassurance he had decided to accept. It was also at this moment that he noticed Lukas standing there with a frown on his face.
The guards tensed.
They were not sure about the young man at the back — the specific, unreadable quality of Lukas’s presence not communicating itself clearly through the particular, external indicators that cultivator strength usually announces itself through. But they had two Blood Infusion Stage experts on their side, which meant that even if the other side was powerful, they could hold out long enough for the Guild’s response to arrive.
The calculation had the specific, optimistic quality of a calculation that has not yet been tested.
Kaiser noticed Lukas stepping forward.
His expression changed with the particular, immediate quality of someone whose attention has been redirected by a development that has produced the specific, wrong reaction — the face turning cold with the honest, direct quality of someone who has been watching a scene he arranged and has just had someone walk into it without his permission.
"One more inch."
The voice carried the specific, cutting quality of someone who has not raised it and does not need to — the ruthless intent present not in the volume but in the particular, precise quality of words chosen by someone who expects them to be sufficient and is not accustomed to discovering they are not.
"And you will not be able to move for the rest of your life."
What the hell.
Lukas stood in the specific, momentary stillness of someone who has just been spoken to in a register they have not previously encountered directed at them — the particular, involuntary quality of genuine surprise at being addressed as if the address was being delivered to something considerably below the level of a fellow awakener. An insect, at most. The specific, flat quality of Kaiser’s tone carrying the honest, unambiguous message that the gap between them, in Kaiser’s assessment, was not a gap between two people but between a person and something that happened to have two legs.
Lukas was not someone who got angry easily.
This time, the anger rose anyway.
Blatant disrespect. The particular, clean variety — unprovoked, directed, the specific, dismissive quality of someone who has not even assessed the person they are dismissing but has dismissed them on the basis of the particular, categorical assumption that their dismissal is warranted by default. He had not done anything. Had not spoken, had not threatened, had not taken a single action that the specific, reasonable version of Kaiser’s assessment could have found threatening.
And yet.
If it had been anyone else — the particular, honest accounting of what a reasonable person does when someone with two Blood Infusion Stage experts at their disposal delivers a direct, specific threat — they would have taken the step back.
Lukas took the step forward.
"I really want to know how you plan on making someone with two legs unable to move for the rest of his life."
The specific, calm quality of the words — not heated, not aggressive, not performing the particular, theatrical courage of someone who is afraid and is covering the fear with volume. Just the honest, flat quality of a question being asked by someone who has a genuine interest in the answer and is asking it with the particular, steady quality of someone who has decided that the threat requires direct engagement rather than strategic retreat.
Kaiser’s face twisted.
The disgust carried the particular, genuine quality of someone encountering something that has violated a deep, personal expectation — the specific, offended quality of someone for whom being talked back to was not a category of event that belonged in his particular, curated experience of how the world worked.
"You filthy idiot! How dare you disrespect me by talking back?"
The green quality of his face had the honest, involuntary quality of rage that has exceeded the particular, composed layer and has found its way into the physical expression of the person experiencing it.
"Don’t mind him. Elder sister — chop off this dog’s legs. I want him to learn the meaning of actions."
The two Blood Infusion Stage experts stopped.
They saluted Kaiser with the specific, trained quality of people executing an instruction from someone whose instructions they execute, then redirected toward Lukas with the particular, simultaneous quality of targets being assigned and accepted — the bloodlust in their eyes carrying the honest, operational quality of cultivators who have been given permission to do something and are doing it without the particular, personal investment that makes bloodlust complicated.
It was the clean, professional variety.
Mark’s heart pounded with the specific, physical quality of someone registering what he was looking at and having the honest, involuntary response that that category of killing intent produces in people who are standing in its general vicinity. Some of the guards with weaker wills were already folding — the particular, overwhelming quality of two Blood Infusion experts’ combined killing intent producing the specific, physiological response in less-conditioned cultivators of systems simply declining to continue functioning at normal capacity.
"No — don’t—"
Ambrose moved.
The pale quality of her face carried the specific, genuine nature of concern that does not perform itself — the particular, real quality of someone who has identified a specific, immediate danger to a specific, particular person and has found, in the identification, that the concern is not abstract. There were many things about Lukas she did not know. But two weeks of outer forest travel had given her the particular, accumulated knowledge that mattered most right now: he was in a weak state. Whatever was running inside him — the specific, careful process that had been organizing every avoided confrontation and every hand-off to her and to the summons across the entire journey — could not absorb what three experts combining force were about to deliver.
He could not fully use his abilities.
She knew this with the specific, instinctive quality of someone who has been watching carefully enough to know without having been told.
Kaiser saw her face.
The particular, specific expression on it — the concern, unguarded, directed at the insect who had just talked back to him with the flat, steady quality of someone who did not know his place — produced a reaction in Kaiser that exceeded the particular, cold anger he had been maintaining.
This insect will have to die.
The thought had the specific, absolute quality of a conclusion rather than an impulse — not the particular, heated variety of anger that passes but the specific, cold variety that files itself as a decision and waits to be executed.
Even my elder sister cannot look at anyone with that expression.
The sharp aura erupted.
From Kaiser’s position, with the particular, sudden quality of something that has been held in and has been released — the Von Maximus bloodline’s specific, tyrannical expression finding the two guards rushing toward Lukas and suppressing them with the honest, overwhelming quality of a force that has decided to demonstrate what it is capable of to an audience it has decided needs the demonstration.
Lukas felt it.
The specific, immediate quality of something moving at the atomic level — not cells, not tissue, but the particular, deeper architecture of everything, the feeling of being cut at a resolution that normal sword technique does not reach. He processed this with the specific, rapid quality of someone who has just had a new category of sensation delivered without warning and has the particular, enhanced senses to register its full, precise detail.
He understood immediately that it was not real.
No Blood Infusion Stage expert was capable of what that feeling suggested — the honest, specific limitation of the stage applied against the particular, terrifying quality of what Kaiser’s bloodline produced as an illusion. It was an illusion generated by the tyrannical bloodline. The real thing and the felt thing were different categories, and he was still in the specific, fortunate position of being able to distinguish them.
Then the two guards arrived.
The combined force of the three — Kaiser’s bloodline aura and both Blood Infusion experts’ full output arriving at the same point simultaneously — carrying the particular, crushing quality of something that has been organized specifically to ensure that what it is aimed at does not survive the aim.
Lukas flicked his wrist.
The specific, minimal quality of the movement — not the particular, theatrical quality of someone deploying power dramatically but the honest, economical quality of someone who knows exactly what they are doing and has decided that the doing of it requires exactly this much and no more. The vaporized water erupted with the particular, immediate quality of the Ice Affinity finding its expression through the specific, practiced channel of someone who has been forging and using this exact capacity across the entire journey.
The wall formed.
Pure ice — the particular, dense quality of material constructed rather than generated, the thick, structural quality of something that has been made with the specific intention of standing rather than yielding. The cold of it carrying the honest, particular quality of the Ice Affinity’s real temperature rather than the decorative variety.
Rip.
The cracks appeared with the specific, multiple quality of force finding the path of least resistance across the wall’s surface — the threefold pressure of Kaiser’s bloodline and two Blood Infusion experts working against the ice with the honest, combined quality of three separate forces having been aimed at the same point.
The ice did not shatter.
The particular, standing quality of it — holding with the specific, stubborn quality of something that has been made properly and is doing what it was made to do — communicating, in the honest, physical language of material that has not broken, exactly what the wrist flick had been worth.
Mark stared at the wall.
Ambrose stopped her rush toward Lukas and stared at the wall.
Kaiser’s eyes narrowed at the wall with the particular, recalibrating quality of someone who has just had the specific category of his assumption about an insect revised by the evidence of the insect’s wall.
The cracked ice stood.
The All Heavens Mandate continued its thousand circulations.
And Lukas stood behind the wall with the particular, flat quality of someone who has done what was necessary and is now waiting to see whether what was necessary will be sufficient.