I Was Called A Demon

East of the Heart Lake, near the river separating Long Shiyi’s territory and the Exarch’s Domain.

Conflict had ravaged the land. On one side, scorched earth and blazing sigils marking the Exarch’s mastery. On the other, the forces of the decaying dragon were still standing tall, though hardly untouched. There were plenty of ruined fortifications and torched corpses, enormous marks made by the skills of the strongest cultivators on either side of the conflict.

Then, there were the onlookers, which could be considered the third faction. Mercenaries, opportunists, and those that had certain other interests that could be achieved as part of the conflict.

Among them was the Righteous Court, whose sole motive was culling the demons of the world.

“It pains me to see the world in such a state… such senseless conflict, fought between two forces of nature…” Hua Jun stood at the top of a hill, watching over the battlefield, his sword impaled into the earth, his hands resting atop the hilt of the jian.

“Master, what use is there in pitying these demonic souls?”

“Do not throw around those words so carelessly… there are those amongst them that have succumbed to demonic nature, but most are ordinary, doing what they can to safeguard themselves and those around them. To the Exarch’s forces, this war is to safeguard their interests, and to the dragon’s, it is a defence against invaders… There is no innate sin to their actions.”

Lei Kai Lian frowned as she looked away, the wind causing some blonde strands to stray in front of her eyes, but she sat still, seemingly unaware, consumed by thought.

Seeing this, Hua Jun sighed. It was a good thing that she was giving his words some thought, but it was too little, too late. A battlefield wasn’t a place where all would walk away unharmed – with each day they lingered in their mission, to cull the so-called demons waging war upon one another, the risks of one of them falling in battle only rose.

If his disciple fell, it would be tragic, but if he did… he was terrified how things would proceed. Without his guidance, he feared that Lei Kai Lian would suffer the same descent as Bianca, the so-called Demon Queen of the Reaper’s Grave. With the foolish, overly zealous Judges remaining in the Righteous Court, her mind would be filled with nonsense, and she would be driven into conflict with those that had done no harm.

Ultimately, he wished he could find it in himself to escape from this place, to guide his disciple and the other members of the Righteous Court back onto the proper path… but he could not abandon his duty, twisted as its purpose was.

And so, he would persevere, and if the heavens will, endure beyond this war.

“Master, why are the people outside our lands so… violent?”

“They are not. You are merely unfamiliar with the true state of our Righteous Court. Behind our pristine façade, we only maintain the peace with violence.”

Lei Kai Lian lowered her gaze again, remaining silent for quite some time before she spoke up again.

“Will we die here, Master?”

“Not if I can help it… but the threats on this battlefield are mighty, so there may be some that I am unable to repel. So, in the event that I am forced to challenge a foe beyond my abilities, I order you to run away – do not let your life be lost in vain.”

“Understood, Master. I…”

She froze as potent violet light surged ahead of them. A vast grasping set of fingers suddenly thrust out from the earth, surrounding some distant foes before closing around them. They grew tighter and tighter, until they slowly faded, revealing only a crimson stain upon the earth, ruined flesh and bones. It was obviously the power of an expert, a Marked Core cultivator on the Exarch’s side.

“Jun Jie. His cultivation may be inferior to mine, but his skills… that archetype is unpredictable, and he has been able to grow rapidly in the past few months, even without his cultivation rising. Let us-” Hua Jun couldn’t finish his sentence, for he saw the violet glow slowly snaking towards them, “Back off! I will stall him!”

“M-Master?!”

“Do as I say!” he leapt forward, raising his blade towards the skies as thunder suddenly sounded above them.

Out of nowhere, dark clouds gathered in the skies, flashes of lightning sparking amidst the shadows as the violet light drew ever closer. At once, the violet and lightning emerged together, a lightning strike crashing from the skies upon an open palm that emerged from the earth.

The lightning clashed against it, the rumble of thunder momentarily deafening Lei Kai Lian, the vivid lightning forcing her to look away from the strike.

The moment she could look back, she saw Hua Jun’s blade clashing with a vast purple finger, behind which was a tall, imposing figure. Wearing a hooded robe with interlocking fingers for pauldrons, eyes that glowed with purple and skin that seemed to perpetually be in shadow, even as the light of lightning should’ve illuminated his face.

“We’ve not come for you, Jun Jie! Stay away!” Hua Jun shone with righteous light, his blade at the ready.

“You bastards are all the same, you would’ve turned on me the moment you spotted weakness! Besides, do you think I don’t recognise Boundless Edge in your hands?” the master of the Breach grinned, a myriad of fingers emerging from all around him, “Such a weapon doesn’t belong in your hands, you vulture!”

“Nor does it suit yours, but at least in my hands it will do no harm to the world,” Hua Jun replied, light gathering around the sword.

Jun Jie said nothing, a smirk upon his face as he lifted a hand into the air, grasping in much the same manner as his many skills. Behind him, the veil of reality was torn as fingers emerged from the opening, reaching out and locking onto the earth, keeping the rift in existence open as monstrous beings emerged from within.

Strange entities of hands and fingers rushed out, a violet light following them as the breach expanded outwards.

Hua Jun could’ve fought them off if he was alone, but behind him stood the forces of the Righteous Court, most of whom were below him in realm. Thus, he was left with no choice but to face them head-on, slashing out with his sword.

The radiance that gathered around it burst out with immense might, easily cutting through the first wave of creatures and striking the fingers holding the breach open – but Jun Jie wasn’t idle as this was happening, either. He snapped his fingers, and another, smaller opening manifested within the world, right next to Lei Kai Lian, a few smaller monsters bursting out in an instant. The opening barely lasted a few seconds, but that was enough time for the entities within to escape, surrounding the disciple in moments, gaping mouths of fingers and limbs composed of intertwined arms.

“I am your opponent, Jun Jie!” Hua Jun raised a hand into the air, invoking the thunder rumbling above.

Countless lightning bolts surged forth, crashing down on the entities and frying most of them, leaving only one threat for Lei Kai Lian to deal with.

Thus, he turned his attention back to the true foe. Jun Jie was a massive threat, a general of the Exarch’s forces that could summon armies and conjure unpredictable entities as part of his unique archetype, and when he was also able to control the battlefield… he was a fearsome foe, one that Hua Jun would’ve preferred to avoid at all costs.

Right now, though, he had no choice but to fight, and so he unleashed everything he had. Invoking the strength granted to him by Rewarding the Just, he put it all into the skill he had mastered most – Punishment Blade.

With a single swing, his sword cut through the open breach before him, without even using external energy – through some mastery of the sword and his skill, he was able to slice through objects many metres away as though they were right before him, even stone being reduced to warm butter in his path.

The fingers desperately holding the breach open were cut through, and even Jun Jie was forced to block, manifesting half a dozen fingers that burst out from the earth, only barely preventing the sword slash from reaching him and fading into nothingness a moment after.

“Perhaps the rumours of your Sword Dao were more accurate than I thought. Impressive.”

“If you had wished to test my prowess, you should have challenged me to a proper duel, Jun Jie! Do not threaten the disciples of the Righteous Court,” he glared at him, having a breath to spare before both leapt into action once more.

As Jun Jie snapped his fingers, he disappeared from the spot just in time for Hua Jun’s slash to miss, and reappeared at Lei Kai Lian’s side, a vast rift appearing behind him with numerous fingers reaching out to grab onto her. Another surged out under her feet the moment she tried to back away, tripping her up, and even more burst from the ground to restrain her from escaping.

“Don’t you dare!” Hua Jun disappeared in a clap of thunder, appearing in a lightning bolt that struck the ground before Jun Jie.

With a sweeping strike, a sword light flashed, and the entities were cut apart with even greater ease.

As the violet entities dissipated and the planar energy composing them scattered, Jun Jie just chuckled. His eyes glinted, despite the perpetual shadow covering his whole face.

“You really are something, Hua Jun. Even now, this isn’t the full extent of your power, is it?”

“I do not need to waste my energy on someone like you. I’ve warned you already – begone, before my blade removes your head from your body.”

“So you claim… I only need to keep you for a little while longer, so allow me to show you something I’ve discovered!” Jun Jie didn’t give them time to ponder his words, as he suddenly disappeared amidst grasping fingers and emerged from a breach in the sky, almost as far back as when their fight began.

He reached out with both hands, spreading his arms wide as immense power surged from his core. His anchor manifested behind him, dropping down from the skies, surrounded by the same rift-like energy radiating from all his breaches, and then the distinct flashes of searing marks being consumed appeared around him.

One, two, three… fifteen, fourteen, then a final fifteenth mark was triggered, and all of that power flowed around him, concentrating more and more… until suddenly, the light of the breach began to surge from him, as well, expanding rapidly.

A sphere of influence that grew with each breach, rapidly consuming the world around them – transforming it. A desolate, chaotic landscape, terrain composed of fingers and arms, mockeries of rocks and trees manifesting from intertwined digits, quickly reaching the members of the Righteous Court. Though Hua Jun attempted to slice through it, and the others did their best to resist, they couldn’t stop the tide of influence as it swallowed them up, leaving them within the landscape of the breach.

At first, it seemed innocuous, almost harmless. Just a twisted landscape, foreign but safe. Of course, the few Righteous Court members that assumed so were proven wrong quickly, as the edges of this imposed reality trembled, and then figured began to emerge, fading in as they crossed the threshold from outside the part of reality imposed onto the regular world.

The same monsters and being that had been rushing out of the rifts appeared here, their native environment. They appeared in massive numbers, slow at first but speeding up as more and more of these beings seemed to notice their intrusion into their domain.

Furthermore, the elements themselves seemed to be distorted, being pulled into action at the behest of the realm’s lord. Twisters of flame, storms of lightning, rumbling earth and even plant-like growths of fingers distorted the land, soon surrounding the members of the Righteous Court. Those in the lower realms had little chance to evade, and only those in the fourth had a chance thanks to their fourth realm movement skills.

In this situation, even Hua Jun was unable to afford any distractions. If he wasn’t mistaken, this was a sixth realm skill, somehow performed by Jun Jie while in only the fifth realm. As such, it would be weaker in some sense than it could be, but that didn’t change the fact that skills of the Linked Channels realm were often extremely devastating.

Being only a step below the realm of most Sect Masters, a single sixth realm expert was enough to turn the tides of battle, especially one as focused on offensive means as Jun Jie and his archetype were.

The monsters rushing out from beyond the boundaries were all equivalent to powerful fifth realm planar constructs, the elemental threats were roughly between fifth and sixth realm in terms of power, and he didn’t want to know what other horrors his foe could unleash.

Thus, he stopped in place, shutting his eyes as he focused on the essence of the blade, the skill he had mastered past Full Success, reaching the Fifth Stage. He had invoked a Dao from its essence, the very core of the Punishment Blade that he had been training in since his youth. Altogether, he could unleash immense might in theory – and it was time to put it into practise.

His anchor manifested behind him, his marks detonated one by one, and all of the energy was concentrated into the blade, into his form of Boundless Edge.

“Show me what you can do, Hua Jun! Make this worth my while!”

In reply, Hua Jun spoke softly, only barely loud enough for the members of the Righteous Court to hear, “Everyone, duck.”

In the next moment, his eyes opened, his pupils flashing with a mysterious light. His sword suddenly looked heavy, larger than life, dominating the entire scene – and with a simple motion, swung- no, moved the blade from right to left, almost casually.

And yet, everything seemed to stop as he did so. The world itself went still, all of the forces from the breach froze up, only a faint glint being drawn across it all in tandem with his strike. Even the sound of chaos and combat seemed to end, only the faint sound of wind remaining amidst it all. It was all too serene and calm.

All then shifted, an immense light slicing through the scene, the very essence of Jun Jie’s skill split in twain and then to naught as all the concentrated power of Hua Jun’s blow was unleashed at once. All of the finger monstrosities, the elemental storms, even the battlefield upon which they had stood was rent asunder, the river separating the two sides of the conflict stilled thanks to that immense force. Everything that had gone still returned to motion in an instant, all the sounds bursting out in one go, though all of it seemed to distort as it concentrated into a single symphony of praise for the sword master’s might.

The violet landscape shattered out of existence, Jun Jie retreating even before the sword strike truly impacted, and the earth around them exploded, dirt shifting, hills collapsing and the river breaking out of its path to spill onto the shores around it.

At once, the mud to the north and charred dirt to the south were swept aside, the waters of renewal cleansing the land of its wounds, if only just a little bit.

Hua Jun lowered Boundless Edge, trying to stand tall even as his whole body felt impossibly heavy, as though even breathing took more might than the strike he had just performed. Even he wasn’t entirely sure how he’d performed this attack, for it seemed to surpass the classification of a skill entirely – it was something greater, something evoked from his nascent Sword Dao comprehension, perhaps.

Regardless, it had taken its toll on him, but he could not show weakness, not after what Jun Jie had said.

“Righteous Court… heal your injuries, and stand tall. Show the world our strength!” he said, stabbing the tip of Boundless Edge into the earth and resting all his weight upon it, trying to do so as nonchalantly as he possibly could.

The majority of the Righteous Court members seemed to notice nothing, but Lei Kai Lian looked at him with a strange expression, concern mixed with… something else.

“Is there something wrong, disciple?”

“… No, it’s just… a lot to take in, all that’s just happened…”