Tang Qi Hong continued to help me with the Spirit Bomb, and we made good progress, which culminated in a successful field test somewhere at the back of Flame Volcano. Even though we used minute amounts of qi powder, we ended up carving a crater tens of meters deep into the earth, and several times as wide.

"This is insane!" Tang Qi Hong exclaimed, her jaw dropping in awe as she stared at the smoldering crater, which looked as if a meteorite had just impacted agasint the ground at near-light speed (of course, that would have nuked the entire city if it was traveling at even 70% of the speed of light, but never mind the details). She turned to gape at me. "This is enough firepower to kill about ten Pure Spirit Stage pract.i.tioners! And you intend to increase the power behind it? I didn"t think you were serious, but you really just revolutionized the Spirit Armament industry!"

"It couldn"t have been possible without you," I told her humbly and bowed. "Thank you very much for your help."

"Hmph, don"t worry about it." Tang Qi Hong huffed and turned away, slightly embarra.s.sed. "Just be grateful that I"m around, or you would have blown yourself up several times over! Next time, if you"re doing something this dangerous, let me know beforehand!"

She was more right than she knew. I shuddered to think what would have happened if she wasn"t around. i probably would be lying around in the ruins of my workshop in several pieces…and that was if I was lucky enough to not have my remains disintegrated completely by the insane firepower of my Spirit Bombs.

"What are you going to name these Spirit Bombs?" Tang QI Hong asked, loking at them with admiration.

"Terminator Profound Bomb."

"Really?" Tang Qi Hong made a face. "Are you seriously going to rip off Spirit Realm and give such a tacky name to your invention?"

No, I wasn"t. Guess Tang Qi Hong foud me out. And honestly, she was right. There was no way in h.e.l.l I would really name my invention Terminator Profound Bomb, as much as I wanted to make fun of Spirit Realm. Instead…

"Sunburst." I already had the name in mind, thanks to having spent my teenage years playing Magic: The Gathering (before moving onto Warhammer 40,000). The Mirrodin block always had the greatest impact on me, because that was the best time I spent playing Magic: The Gathering. Lore-wise, I had to say I love the Kamigawa stories, but at that point I had stopped playing Magic: The Gathering and was just reading the Kamigawa novels by Scott McGough as well as his Legends Cycle trilogy on Umezawa Tetsuo. I wondered what happened to him ever since Wizards of the Coast stopped releasing novels for Magic: The Gathering (which made me a little sad). His book on Chainer (Chainer"s Torment) was excellent too.

Oh gosh, how I missed my teenage years. Anyway, fact of the matter was that the Mirrodin block had left a strong, lasting influence on me, and I was going with Sunburst from the Fifth Dawn expansion. Not to mention I was forging Spirit Artifacts, and the Mirrodin block coincidentally was the one that first placed emphasis on artifacts. Yay.

"That"s a good name." Tang Qi Hong was nodding in approval, no doubt mistaking the reasoning behind my name to have something to do with the fearsome power of the sun. Having no reason to disabuse her of the notion, I merely smiled.

"Thank you."

"Well, I"ll come around and help you build more of them," Tang Qi Hong a.s.sured me. "I can"t wait to see Father"s and Mother"s expressions when we show them the final product."

"They will be blown away," I joked, and she grimaced.

"I hope you"re not being literal."

Of course, I wasn"t, but I couldn"t help but tease her.

"Anyway, I"m going to meet up with Lian Rou for now." She stopped when she saw my expression. "What?"

"Do you guys plan to go shopping today and relax a little?" I asked, somewhat worriedly.

"Huh? No, of course not. Why would we do that?" Tang Qi Hong looked at me strangely. "Even if we did, how is that your business? I"m allowed to socialize however I want with whoever I want."

"That"s not what I meant," I quickly placated her. "It"s just that Nine-Tailed Sect is at war with another sect, and there"s a terrifying a.s.sa.s.sin from Divine Shadow Sect on the loose in Tushan City, so it"s best not to go to Free Trade Street where someone tried killing us last time."

Tang Qi Hong snorted. "We"re not that stupid. After what happened last time, why would I ever step into Free Trade Street again, especially in a time of turmoil like this? And why the heck would we be allowed to leave the sect grounds by ourselves anyway?"

"To trigger the kidnapping cliché. You know, in xianxia stories, the girls always get kidnapped when they go out on their own and the guys have to go save them from the evil villain."

"What?!" Tang Qi Hong lightly punched me. "That"s so misgynistic! What kind of dumb logic is that? Only incompetent writers resort to such chauvinistic tropes to write a story. They seem to treat female characters as nothing more than one-dimensional objects that just exist for the protagonist to add to his harem, after saving them. It"s as if all female characters will fall into danger when stepping out of their homes, and for some reason despite being described as strong, intelligent and talented, they can"t protect themselves and always, always have to rely on the male protagonist to come save them. I"m sick of those kind of stories!"

Uh, okay…maybe it was a bad idea to mention that. I seemed to have flipped a switch in Tang Qi Hong and now she was going on a tirade. Admittedly, I agreed with every word of what she said, especially since I was an advocate of gender equality. Cue all the readers jumping in and flaming me for being a social justice warrior and telling me that SJW bulls.h.i.t has no place in my story. Never mind it"s my story and not theirs…

"You should read less of those stories," Tang Qi Hong was telling me. I couldn"t help but smirk at the hypocrisy.

"Yet you continue reading all those reincarnated heroines who end up in the bodies of n.o.bles or generals or royal princesses" trash daughters? Heroines who are top a.s.sa.s.sins, divine doctors, expert martial artists, ex-marine or special forces, all rolled into one?"

"Hey! It"s fun to read them!" Tang Qi Hong coughed. "Anyway, don"t worry. Lian Rou and I won"t be setting foot out of the sect. We"re not that stupid. We know what"s going on with Nine-Tailed Fox Sect and the other sects."

Yeah, given how they hadn"t given in to teenage drama and all that angst bulls.h.i.t, I guess I can trust them on that. Otherwise they would have been abducted by Blood Shadow, who would lure me, Lang Xie and Hai Rong into a trap. On the other hand, Blood Shadow and all the other martial artists wouldn"t be interested in me, because I was too insignificant and weak. They probably just wanted to aim for Lang Xie and Hai Rong and destroy Blood Blades.

Fortunately, that wouldn"t happen as long as we took the right precautions, and it seemed that unlike most xianxia heroines, Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou were behaving sensibly for once. Sighing in relief, I then packed up the remains of our experiment while wondering how much I could increase the firepower if I added a few more grams. This was the result of just four grams. I wondered how much more destruction my Sunburst could wreak if I used a hundred grams.

It wouldn"t be as simple as multiplying it by twenty-five times. If I"m not mistaken, it would be amplified way more than just twenty-five times. Unfortunately, I wasn"t a mathematician or a trained chemist (or alchemist) so I didn"t know. All I had was my knowledge of history and literature, and it was because of history that I knew to invent the Sunburst.

If the ten sects from the Martial Arts Alliance came for us, I would be waiting to give them an explosive welcome.

*

Unfortunately, I wasn"t able to build a second, improved one. Over the next few days, the Blood Blades were mobilized as the sect heightened security in response to the increasing number of enemies. Not only did we have to protect the walls at the front of Flame Volcano that surrounded Tushan City, we also had to be aware of the fleet of Incendiary Ifrit Sect that was slowly sailing along the huge river at the back of Flame Volcano. The river actually led to the Will"O Wisp Forest, but was dammed off by one of the walls.

"This isn"t good." Lang Xie was murmuring to himself as he briefed us Blood Blades. "We may have to split our forces."

"With ten sects coming to our gates, even the Blood Blades are stretched thin." Hai Rong sighed. "I"m trying to track down Blood Shadow and a group of Divine Shadow Sect a.s.sa.s.sins who have infiltrated the city, while you"re manning the defenses of the gate. Perhaps I should divert my unit away from pursuit and…"

"There is no need to."

Sect Lady Zi Da Ji glided into the room. At once, everyone stiffened and sat up straight, trying to look sharp and smart. Sect Lady Da Ji didn"t pay us much heed, though, striding to the front of the room and taking her place between Lang Xie and Hai Rong. She finally turned to face us, her beautiful face and dark eyes gleaming.

"I will personally take charge of the defense of the river gate and repel the Incendiary Ifrit Sect fleet."

"Sect Lady!" Hai Rong uttered, shocked.

Sect Lady Da Ji smiled warmly as she glanced at her subordinate with steely eyes, a firm aura enveloping her and causing everyone in the room to gulp.

"I am the official commander of Blood Blades, after all. It makes no sense for me to stay out of the fighting completely."

"But your duty is to protect Sect Leader…!"

"I can do that best by repelling the invaders before they ever get close enough to threaten him," Sect Lady Da Ji pointed out. "Besides, we have you and Lang Xie in the sect itself. And even if you leave for your respective tasks, I"m sure my husband will be more than capable of taking care of himself, provided he"s not reckless enough to step out of the sect grounds. With you trying to track down Blood Shadow, I daresay he won"t be able to slip into the sect, and the chances of him and the other a.s.sa.s.sins breaking into our territory proper are slim. On the other hand, if we allow the Incendiary Ifrit Sect to break through our backdoor…"

There was no need for her to elaborate. We all knew what she was going to say.

"Are you going by yourself?" Lang Xie asked quietly. Sect Lady Da Ji"s smile widened.

"I alone am more than enough for the likes of Incendiary Ifrit Sect."

"Even so, I cannot allow you to go alone." Hai Rong glanced at the a.s.sembled Blood Blades before her. "I"ll a.s.sign you a squad."

"I volunteer!" I raised my hand. "My ice techniques should be useful against the fire techniques from the Incendiary Ifrit Sect."

This statement wasn"t made without basis. I had fought their prodigy disciple, Ling Qing Zhu, evenly, and even managed to immobilize her. If she showed up again, I should be able to hold her off while Sect Lady Da Ji took care of the masters.

"Good idea." Sect Lady Da Ji nodded approvingly. "I"ll bring Fei Wu"s squad then."

"Um, I don"t have a squad…" I glanced at Tong Xue, who nodded. Pang Feng was absent for some reason – apparently he had gone off for Cloud Sky Mountain business when the rumors started flying, and knowing his delicate position, neither of us sought to pursue the matter. "Tong Xue and I are the only people in our team."

"I"m in," Tong Xue said immediately, raising his hand. "I"ll be happy to accompany Sect Lady Da Ji into battle."

"That"s good enough." Sect Lady Da Ji smiled gratefully at the both of us.

Hai Rong sighed. "I"ll be a.s.signing squad 4 to you, my lady. In addition to those two." She turned to look at me, Tong Xue and squad 4. "You children had better take care of yourself. Don"t do anything reckless."

"I"ll take good care of them," Sect Lady Da Ji a.s.sured her, but Hai Rong didn"t look convinced.

"That"s what I"m afraid of." She sighed heavily and fixed her stern gaze on us. "Do not let Sect Lady Da Ji do all the fighting. I know I told you not to be reckless, but make sure you step in and support her as much as possible. Sect Lady Da Ji tends to try and fight everyone on her own, so make sure you rein her in and keep her from doing anything stupid."

"Hey!" Sect Lady Da Ji snapped, annoyed. "I"m right here, I can hear you, you know?"

"That"s exactly why I"m saying it," Hai Rong replied coolly. Sect Lady Da Ji sulked.

"You do know I"m the commander of Blood Blades, right? I"m ranked higher than you! At least give me some face!"

"I will if you stop doing stupid things."

"HEY!"

Lang Xie coughed, stopping the two squabbling women in their tracks. The vice-commander rose slowly and nodded at squad 4 plus two.

"We"ll be counting on you, Squad 4, Fei Wu, Tong Xue, and my lady." He quietly turned away to leave the room. "The rest of you, let"s resume our duties. I sense a few powerful martial artists lurking just outside the gate."

"We should get going then." Sect Lady Da Ji nodded toward the direction of squad 4 plus two (I was relieved they didn"t just integrate us into squad 4 as that would require us to train together, and we didn"t have a clear rapport and understanding with them yet). "Blood Blades of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, we march to battle!"

A few minutes later, we found ourselves on the walls overlooking the river. The moment we reached the rampart, Sect Lady Da Ji turned to us, her expression solemn.

"Be careful, kids," she instructed. "This place…"

Boom!

A gigantic fireball slammed into the fortified walls and exploded, blasting a huge chunk of concrete and metal and sending it dropping into the river with a huge splash. The crater burned, an inferno spreading rapidly across the ground and searing us with intense heat. Several of us instinctively took a step back.

"…is extremely dangerous," she finished, her eyes blazing fiercely as the flames raged behind her.

With that, she turned to look down on the lead ship below. Two gigantic fireb.a.l.l.s had materialized on either side of the ship, levitating above the river and causing its watery surface to vaporize into steam.

"Hah! This is the rumored impenetrable fortress of Tushan?" one of the demonic martial artists on the ship burst out laughing. "Don"t make me laugh!"

Too late for that…

"The wall got destroyed so easily!"

"…"

Sect Lady Da Ji studied the pa.s.sengers aboard the ship for a moment, and then shook her head.

"You"re so happy after merely chipping our wall? Aren"t you celebrating too early?"

"You are…!"

The martial artist"s face turned extremely pale when he caught sight of Sect Lady Da Ji, recognizing her n.o.ble bearing. Trying to suppress his fear, he stopped trembling when he caught sight of nothing more than a single squad accompanying her in the defense of this part of Tushan City. He then smirked arrogantly.

"…ho…I"m a bit disappointed. That"s all the forces you have left in Tushan City? A tiny fragment of the revered Blood Blades? For a place under Nine-Tailed Fox Sect"s protection, the security appears to be a little light."

"There"s no need to worry," Sect Lady Da Ji replied coolly. For a moment, I caught a glimpse of the h.e.l.lish bloodthirsty aura that emanated from her beautiful figure like demonic flames. "I am here. There is no greater security than this."

"I see…"

The lead martial artist"s vein twitched in his temple, but credit to him, he managed to maintain his cool.

"We"re rather being looked down upon and vastly underestimated, aren"t we?"

Sect Lady Da Ji shrugged flippantly. "If you want to interpret it that way. However, shouldn"t you be honored that you forced me, of all people, out of the inner sanctuary of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect?"

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" the demonic martial artist erupted in laughter. "Do you really think we wouldn"t expect that? Our legendary sect leader himself has arrived!"

"Enough, Qiu Niu."

An old man in white and maroon robes, with a long crimson cloak billowing about behind him, stepped forward, his right hand curled into a symbollic gesture. In his left hand, he held a blazing spear, and the two gigantic fireb.a.l.l.s appeared to respond to his will.

"You are…" Sect Lady Da Ji frowned slightly. Even though she did not display her emotions, I could tell that she was a little shocked.

The first demonic martial artist laughed.

"That"s right! This is the legendary master and sect leader of Incendiary Ifrit Sect, the Golden G.o.d of Fire."

"I told you that"s enough, Qiu Niu." The Golden G.o.d of Fire sighed as he raised his fingers to the front of his face. "I missed on the first strike." Shaking his head, he lamented to himself. "I must be getting old."

"That"s quite the…original name," I remarked dryly. Sect Lady Da Ji didn"t seem to have heard me, her attention focused on the old man below.

"What is the legendary Golden G.o.d of Fire, Ling Huo Shen, doing here? You can"t possibly be allying the Martial Arts Alliance to attack our Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, can you?"

"You"re right," Ling Huo Shen agreed. "We are not here as allies of the Martial Arts Alliance. However, as you know, the Incendiary Ifrit Sect has close ties with the Fire Valley Sect of the Seven Valley Sects. Not to mention, my two nieces are currently in the Dark Fiend Valley Sect. They have approached us for a favor, and so I accepted it."

"…I bet in return, the Martial Arts Alliance will ignore their criminal activities and close one eye on whatever they do in future," Tong Xue muttered darkly.

"The Imperial Guard won"t, though." I scowled, wondering what the point of this was, but Tong Xue had an answer to that.

"It"s still one less enemy they have to worry about, and a very powerful enemy at that."

Having been confronted by the Martial Arts Alliance and seeing Nine-Tailed Fox Sect a.s.sailed on all sides, I could see what he meant.

"I see." Sect Lady Da Ji didn"t appeared moved. She merely c.o.c.ked her head to the side and smiled. "So you"ve come here to seek your deaths."

"Such insolence!" Ling Huo Shen roared and launched his two ma.s.sive fireb.a.l.l.s at us. Squad 4, Tong Xue and I jumped back on reflex, raising our qi to create defensive barriers, but Sect Lady Da Ji merely threw out a hand.

Kaboom!

The explosion seemed to momentarily engulf the fortress wall for a moment, blinding us in smoke and embers. I coughed when I accidentally inhaled some of the smoke, and dropped to my knees, heaving and weezing.

Fortunately, I found that I was still on solid ground. Despite the size of the enormous fireb.a.l.l.s, they failed to destroy the castle wall. Most likely Sect Lady Da Ji had repelled them or something, but I didn"t see the move she used.

I did sense the sudden surge of qi that emanated from her, though. From my Heaven and Earth sense, it felt like a wall of fire.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

The lead demonic martial artist from earlier was laughing at the destruction of the wall. Though it hadn"t entirely collapsed, there were two huge craters gouged out from the once formidable-looking structure.

"That will teach you for being arrogant! Did you think you"re invincible, Mrs. Zi Da Ji?" Qiu Niu planted his hands on his hips. "Our sect leader is the Golden G.o.d of Fire, an ascetic who had isolated himself in the mountains to train for decades."

Sect Lady Da Ji was shaking her hands, which were smoldering. Two more fireb.a.l.l.s were launched from Ling Huo Shen, and she was forced to jump into the air and strike them away with her hands, but despite her elemental affinity with fire, she felt a flash of pain. Surprised, she spun away, her hands scorched.

Fortunately, her actions were more than enough to deflect the ma.s.sive fireb.a.l.l.s away from the wall and spinning uncontrollably toward the heavens.

"And right now he is the only person in the world capable of using…"

Sect Lady Da Ji produced a sword and slashed the second fireball, dissipating it, but the force of the resulting explosion caused her to careen from the air helplessly. Flipping her body gracefully, Sect Lady Da Ji deftly landed back on the seared ramparts, her hands shaking.

"…the Divine Fire, Pure Yang Flames."

While I studied the old man, somewhat in awe, Tong Xue spoke up somewhat wryly.

"That"s not true. His daughter, Ling Qing Zhu, has learned the Divine Fire, Pure Yang Flames from him as well."

Qiu Niu looked a little stunned, and he coughed in embarra.s.sment.

"So what? That doesn"t change the fact that he"s currently the second most powerful fire martial arts pract.i.tioner, second only to Lie Yang Fen Tian of the Blazing Sun Sect!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Ling Huo Shen was guffawing as he gripped his spear, a torrent of liquid inferno blazing around him in a protective aura. "I"ve heard that Lady Zi Da Ji of the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect is also capable of fire martial arts, and her Nine-Tailed Fire Fox Formula is renowned throughout the Great Zhou Empire, but it seems that it"s still no match for my Divine Fire, Pure Yang Flames!"

"It"s true," Sect Lady Da Ji conceded. "Your Divine Fire, Pure Yang Flames are truly powerful." She raised her burned hand and tested her fingers, studying her injuries grimly. "I made a mistake in underestimating them."

"Hah!" Ling Huo Shen crowed. "My Pure Yang Flames are an ancient Divine Fire. Even with your elemental affinity to fire, if you tried to take them on bare-handed, you"ll only end up severely hurting yourself!"

"Ineed." Sect Lady Da Ji nodded. And then she smirked. "But at this level…I see why you"ll always only be second to Blazing Sun Sect"s Lie Yang Fen Tian."

"What did you say?!" Ling Huo Shen screeched, slamming his spear against the deck of his ship.

"To be so arrogant after summoning only two tiny fireb.a.l.l.s…" Sect Lady Da Ji sighed, and raised her sword. Almost instantly, nine enormous fireb.a.l.l.s, which dwarfed the two that Ling Huo Shen had conjured, appeared, blazing ferociously like miniature sus in the sky. "And you dare to claim that my Nine-Tailed Fire Fox Formula is no match for your pathetic Pure Yang Flames?"

"Im…impossible…!"

Ling Huo Shen and the Incendiary Ifrit Sect members were all gaping at the nine gigantic fireb.a.l.l.s that hovered intimidatingly in the sky. However, Sect Lady Da Ji didn"t give them the chance to admire the terrifying view and swung her hand down without hesitation, mercilessly bombarding the small armada with the fireb.a.l.l.s.

Boom!

The entire river flashed into steam, the water vaporizing instantly from the sheer heat. In less than ten seconds, eight of the nine ships that had sailed into Tushan River, trying to seek access into our city, were obliterated, both men and structure incinerated in an instant. The charred remains of the ships sank quietly into the waves, and I was hardly able to see any corpses even with the enhancements in my gla.s.ses.

The majority of them had been burned into ash.

"Amazing…"

"Unbelievable…"

Beside me, Tong Xue and squad 4 were murmuring under their breaths, staring at the standing Sect Lady Da Ji in awe.

I realized then that she wasn"t exaggerating when she said that she alone would be more than enough to destroy the invading Incendiary Ifrit Sect forces. Nor was she trying to raise a fact. She was simply stating a fact.

The sole surviving ship bobbed about, its frame scorched and blackened by the flames. Ling Huo Shen was standing on the deck with his legs splayed about and breathing a bit heavily. Lowering his arms, which he had raised in a defensive posture over his head, he glared up at Sect Lady Da Ji.

Earlier, he had countered Sect Lady Da Ji"s fireball with Divine Fire of his own, barely protecting the ship he was on, as well as its pa.s.sengers. Unfortunately, he was unable to do the same for the rest of his armada, which resulted in the fleet being almost wiped out.

Unfortunately, there was no turning back for him now.

"You vixen…" he snarled. "I won"t forgive you! I swear, I"ll destroy Nine-Tailed Fox Sect today, by any means necessary!"

Dozens of gigantic fireb.a.l.l.s hovered behind him, aggressively responding to his will and swirling around to bombard the walls of Tushan City.

"Oh? So you can conjure more of those fireb.a.l.l.s, after all." Sect Lady Da Ji"s lips curled into a smile. "But…shouldn"t you avoid showing off in front of a true master?"

Another nine fireb.a.l.l.s, even bigger than most of Ling Huo Shen"s fireb.a.l.l.s combined, materialized behind her.

The two bombardments clashed, resulting in another devastating explosion that vaporized more river water and almost sent the ship flying. In the castle walls, a shockwave hurled us off our feet, knocking us down below.

"Kuh!"

I managed to land on my feet somewhat clumsily, and staggered for a moment before I finally regained my balance. It appeared that I had been separated from the rest, and Tong Xue and the majority of squad 4 were still atop the battered ramparts.

On the other hand, the sole surviving ship was sinking fast, most of its structure having caught fire. The occupants, aware of the danger they were in, hurriedly jumped off the sinking ship, and some of them landed on the fortification that guarded Tushan City, earnestly launching into combat against Tong Xue and squad 4.

A few landed on the bank where I was on, and I recognized Ling Qing Zhu as being among them. They didn"t hesitate when they spotted me, drawing their weapons and charging. Flames burst into life, circling their blades and bodies.

Seeing that Sect Lady Da Ji was currently embroiled in a fierce struggle with Ling Huo Shen, and that my fellow Blood Blades disciples were engaged in combat of their own, it seemed that I was left to fend for myself against our enemies" superior numbers.