Yu Chen was breathing raggedly by the time the fight ended, his aches and pains catching up to him.

  They’d all managed to survive the unexpected fight, thankfully, in no small part due to Serbo au Serbo’s expertise, although the formation Lue Xan had activated had a part to play. Sun Yuan and the others had done their share as well, holding back the pirates that had threatened to overwhelm them.

  Yu Chen turned, his eyes narrowing as another explosion rocked the night. The fight for the Auction ship was hectic, and he couldn’t help but frown at the number of blazing lights he could see shining through the smoke and fog covering the river. Countless ships were now nothing more than wreckage, burning in fiery bonfires that lit the night sky.

  They’d seemed evenly matched in the beginning, but it was quickly becoming worse for the Auction Ship as time went on.

  Many of the ships that were burning in the darkness had black hulls, but most of the reaver vessels were still in fighting form. He could tell; their spiritual artillery held a particular ring as it sounded out across the river.

  On the other hand, less than half of the rag-tag fleet that had sailed forth to defend the ship still remained. It was a staggering amount of loss, although the smaller ships still dotted the river as far as he could see.

  Perhaps resistance had always been foolish.

  There were many paths towards the heavens, and not everyone chose to follow a martial one. Most cultivators learned how to fight, but there was a difference between learning to fight, and fighting to live.

  Every single reaver was among the latter, someone who fought through life every step of the way, pillaging and plundering, killing with ease.

  On the other hand, many of the cultivators who journeyed to the Auction Ship were farmers, or merchants, gamblers, healers or even artists, the paths they took through life as varied as the people that walked along them.

  Unfortunately, that left them at the mercy of the strong.

  Sun Yuan and Yan Ziqi were hard at work, trying to dislodge the lady. They spoke in clipped tones, communicating with each other as the rest of them walked the deck, looting the dead. Yu Chen joined in, taking what he could until the sound of snapping lumber brought him up short.

  They all dropped what they were doing, running to leap aboard the Lady as the prow came loose, pulling them away from the pirate ship. The river swelled forward, filling the void she left behind. The ship began sinking, slowly disappearing from sight as they sailed away to rejoin the battle.

  Xue Lan helped out this time as they rejoined the fray, and it wasn’t long until she’d taken over the cannons completely, shunting Yan Ziqi off to do something else. She was an expert with formations, and under her guidance the cannons began to hum, firing in new intervals as she paced her shots.

  Yu Chen stood beside Sun Yuan at the helm, and Serbo Au Serbo manned the massive ballista, spinning around on its axis to fire on the ships they passed. Sun Yuan kept the ship steady, crashing over another swell as the river bucked beneath them as they sailed half blind through the dense fog of war left behind by the constant explosions of energy.

  A sound caused him to glance upwards, watching two Golden Core cultivators as they battled across the sky.

  A black-robed cultivator utilized some strange technique, stepping through the shadows as he fled from a taller man who wore blood-red robes and carried a ridiculously oversized sabre with a long mane of white hair running down his back. He swung it around him in rage, sending crescent blades of wind shooting towards the pirate trying to escape into the distance.

  Yu Chen sighed, awed by the sight.

  They only had to hold on, the fight wouldn’t be determined by who won or lost down here, but by what happened in the skies above. That was where things would be determined.

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  “End this madness!” Elder Liang yelled out, casting a cold glare towards Ren Xiangjun. “Take your men and go, before all of you die here.”

  The black robed cultivator laughed maniacally, his bloodshot eyes bulging out of his head. Raising a hand, he ran it through his hair as he considered the elder. The laughter that had taken hold seemed to be a momentary thing, cutting off suddenly as he snarled in reply.

  “Madness? Talk to me about madness after I paint the river with your blood and turn your precious ship into a funeral pyre!”

  He swiped out with a hand as he spoke, sending a wave of bloody raindrops pelting through the air towards the elder floating across from him. They whistled forward, but the second they hit the austere man’s domain the color in them faded, and they slowed down to a crawl.

  The elder’s brows tightened, a bead of sweat forming as he held off the attack.

  Ren Xiangjun had to let up however, unable to continue his assault as the spearman took the opportunity to dart in towards him. A sound of frustration escaped his lips. His domain erupted with a sudden clarity as blood appeared from thin air, dripping into reality as it was exuded forth from somewhere beyond this realm.

  The spearman’s face didn’t change, nor did he activate some special technique. He simply thrust forward, the tip of his spear shining with a sudden burst of light as it cleaved the domain in two. Droplets of blood were sent flying through the air as the man carved a bloody path towards the pirate commander.

  Ren Xiangjun’s eyes gleamed. His domain had been torn to shreds by the spearman’s attack, but the blood sent hurtling through the air had reformed, congealing into a hundred spears that stabbed towards the man from all around. He swung his spear furiously, knocking away most and dodging the rest, but one spear found its mark in the unexpected counterattack, cutting the thinnest of lines across the man’s face.

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  Roaring in triumph, Ren Xiangjun seized the opportunity, reforming his domain again. This time, the hapless spearman was within his influence.

  Within the confines of the Domain he’d established blood was his to command, and he’d just been given direct access to the spearman’s own. Ren Xiangjun focused, and the man screamed out in sudden pain. One hand grabbed at his face, trying in vain to hold it together as his blood writhed back and forth beneath the surface and tore apart his skin. Half delirious with pain he managed to slash out with his spear and cut apart the domain around him.

  He fled from Ren Xiangjun’s grasp, but the crazed man chased after him, cackling with glee.

  Xiao Yue appeared just then, interposing his golden shield between them and allowing the spearman to escape. Elder Liang arrived as well, bolstering the other man’s domain with his own, as they once again reached a stalemate with the reaver.

  Ren Xiangjun growled impotently as he watched his prey escape, the spearman’s face already beginning to heal.

  The spearman’s eyes flashed with a violent light of his own. He appeared crazed, on the verge of attacking once more, but a pained shriek interrupted them, causing him to glance to the side.

  “AHHHHHHHHHH!”

  He turned, seeing the cultivator from the Azure Pavilion crying out in pain. His trident was floating nearby as one of the twins held onto his arms, giving them a vicious twist as he pressed a knee into the man’s back.

  The other twin swung a blade, and they watched in disbelief as he was sliced open, a red line running from the tip of his hairline to the base of his bowels. Their domain erupted, and he truly began screaming as he was flayed from the inside out, his own blood skinning him while he was still alive.

  It was a brutal sight, a bloody one, and one the voluptuous woman watched in fascination.

  “Bo’er, dear,” She chided, looking towards the man screaming in agony. “Now why would you do that? A fight really isn’t the sort of place to be getting distracted, now, is it?”

  “You, you, you...” Xiao Yue sputtered in disbelief as he glanced towards the woman. “Bai Lian, what are you doing? How long have we known each other?”

  The beautiful woman cast a look of pity the old man’s way.

  “Come now, Yue’er, don’t be like that. There’s no secrets between us.” She said, winking as she raised a hand to cover her mouth.

  “You would choose to help these animals,” He said with a shout, “get their hands on a piece of a True Domain!? Have you gone mad?”

  Tinkling peals of laughter filled the night sky.

  “Help them? Don’t be so naive, Yue’er dear.” Her seductive mask dropped for a moment, a cold and cunning look replacing it as she smiled towards him. “They are here to help me of course.”

  The flayed man’s screams turned to sobs in the background.

  Bai Lian winced, a frown crossing her beautiful face.

  “Can’t you do something about the noise?” She asked, wrinkling her nose as she looked towards the twins.

  “The more painful the death,” One of them replied.

  “The stronger the Death qi.” The other finished.

  She shook her head turning back to look at the three remaining cultivators on the Auction Ship’s side.

  “Now be a good boy, Yue’er, and toss me that fragment.” Her voice rose as she spoke, the rosy aura surrounding her amplifying by an order of magnitude.

  Hearing the words made the old man’s eyes glaze over, and a small box, radiating with a baleful energy, appeared out of thin air as he twisted his fingers.

  Space warped around it, shifting and moving about as reality became more pliable in its presence.

  “Elder, no!” Elder Liang shouted out, shock running through him as he watched the old man make a motion as though to toss it towards the woman. His domain flared to life, an austere zone that measured all things.

  The scale balanced the old man’s emotions, finding them excessive, far beyond what he needed to function. It was wasteful and the domain did not tolerate waste.

  It almost wasn’t enough. The power of his Domain warred against the insidious feelings the woman had built up in the elder over the years, more than enough to empower her own.

  The elder warred in his heart, but common sense won in the end. He jerked his hand back, his eyes clear and shocked at what he had nearly done.

  A scowl crossed Bai Lian’s face. “Enough of this!” She said, snapping her fingers. A wave of rosy spores covered the man from the Azure Pavilion, cutting his sobs off with a sigh of relief.

  His head drooped forward as life slowly disappeared from his eyes.

  One of the twins let out a disappointed tsk, but he cut it off short as her eyes snapped towards him.

  “Get on with it.” She commanded.

  The twins began muttering, reciting strange incantations that carried across the wind. The breeze blowing around them began to pick up, moving with a purpose as it kicked up a whirlwind of energy that surrounded the cultivators. The flayed man’s body suddenly jerked, moving in a simulacrum of life as his head thrust up, one last gasp escaping from his body along with an oily black energy radiating a misanthropic aura.

  Hunger crossed the twin’s faces as they both took deep breaths, sucking down some of the black qi. Ren Xiangjun waved his hand, greedily pulling some of the energy his way as well, but it was Bai Lian who received the lion’s share. She inhaled sharply, her eyes lighting up in contentment as she sucked down the oily, black energy. It slid through her red lips, and she let out a sigh once it disappeared.

  “Delightful.” She said, licking her lips.

  Xiao Yue cast a wary glance towards them, before whispering to Elder Liang while their attention was distracted.

  “Take this and run.” He said, pushing the fragment into Elder Liang’s hands. He nodded towards the spearman as well. “Between the two of you, we can keep it out of their hands.”

  “What about the ship?” Elder Liang protested, but the old man cut him off.

  “The ship is finished.” His voice was tight as he spoke, the heavy words landing like a pile of bricks between them. “We can help them no more.”

  “My son!” Elder Liang cried out, pain filling his voice as he looked at the clouds down below.

  “Go!” The old man replied, giving him one last smile, full of affection. “Do what you must, I’ll hold them back for as long as I can.”

  Xiao Yue’s Domain erupted as he turned to face the four demonic cultivators.

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Time froze as the body of a demigod fell out of the heavens.

  The fighting slowed down, crawling to a halt as an unfathomable aura fell over the battlefield. Every cultivator on the river stopped what they were doing, looking up regardless of faction.

  The Golden Core cultivators were the first to notice, able to feel the energy from much further away, and it was the cessation of their battle that had caused those on the ships to look up in the first place.

  Everyone wondered who it would be, but no one could have expected the bloody form that tumbled from the sky, leaving a spattered, irregular trail of blood behind it. It wasn’t until they spotted the gleaming trident falling beside him that wails of despair began to rise up.

  Yu Chen didn’t understand at first, but he saw that the cries were coming from two of the ships still floating on the water, both waving the azure flags he’d noticed before.

  That was when he began to feel worried.

  Two powerful auras blazed across the sky, shooting into the Auction Ship for half a second before leaping back into the air and disappearing off into the distance.

  The Golden Core cultivators were the first to react, soaring down to land on ships that belonged to their faction, or simply abandoning everything and fleeing through the sky.

  “I think we should go.”

  Yu Chen turned around at the words.

  Surprisingly, it was the swordsman who spoke.

  Yu Chen nodded, turning around and calling out to Sun Yuan, who began to turn the ship towards the open river.

  In the end, the fight down here might have been meaningless, but Yu Chen didn’t believe their resistance was foolish. Far to the contrary. The battle down here had given them the chance to prove themselves once again, to fight for their ideas and live and die on their own two feet.

  Attempting, even futilely, to take destiny into their own hands.