His body continued collecting qi. As more accrued it moved larger distances faster, attempting to outrun those who would follow it location-to-location, stopping for less time and applying active techniques to swirl the qi rather than simply allow it to fall into the body naturally. It moved at a feverish pace.

  Luo made his way towards Violet, and in a blink he was directly in front of her, grabbing her wrist. His blue-white robes illuminated a dreadful smile and his bearded face dripping with pleasure at having captured The Red Tyrant’s only known associates, indeed, in being—

  Cold panic gripped him. He was a known associate of Jiang Guo. One of two. And his master would never spare him. He would be fought over— no, no… No! He would be killed! Ding Yi would extract all the information he could from them and kill them or… just him! Violet had value as an acolyte of The Tyrant, but Luo? Luo was a casual acquaintance for all they knew. They might learn of Jiang’s promise to him, but even still, he was more valuable as a corpse. He was a liability to Master Yi alive, as his enemies might capture Luo for information.

  Violet, also, grasped Luo’s wrist, and in that moment Jiang spoke to him.

  Hello dear boy.

  Luo’s eyes were stretching with how wide they opened in absolute panic, but he was careful to say nothing and not move. Others would quickly notice and very soon Ding Yi would be upon them. He had about a second before the master arrived.

  Time slowed.

  Swear yourself to me and I will protect you.

  Static electricity formed all around them and their hair stood on end. The robes of all cultivators remaining in the courtyard that had not fled began flowing outward as if by magic.

  Swear yourself to me and I will grant you power beyond imagining.

  Luo’s eyes narrowed as he made a choice.

  Or stay here and die.

  「I swear my soul」—

  「Dao」, Jiang corrected— Luo had already sworn his soul to Ding Yi.

  「I swear my dao to your service, master.」

  「I swear to protect you, disciple Luo.」

  Blue lighting flashed and in the same instant Violet and Luo disappeared in a column of ash.

  「A debt is owed.」

  Ding Yi screamed in fury, but they were gone.

  They appeared in a dimly-lit cave with a fire in the center, though there was no smoke. Jiang’s body was sitting in the corner, though his consciousness was still with Violet. The sun glowed dimly through the cave mouth off in the near distance.

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  “Ding Yi will follow our spiritual tether!” Luo shouted.

  “No he won’t,” Jiang said through Violet’s mouth, “your soul oath has been destroyed.”

  Luo’s eyes and mouth grew wide.

  “You can destroy a soul oath?!”

  “Consider,” Jiang’s body said, “the cost,” Violet’s body said, “of breaking it.”

  “Stop that!” Violet shrieked.

  Jiang shrugged, amused but compliant.

  “You’ll die!” Luo answered.

  “And you did. That’s how we teleported you!”

  Violet looked cautiously at her own tether to Jiang.

  “Not you, Violet, you were teleported regularly.”

  She pouted, but there was a glimmer in her eyes with the newfound knowledge that soul oaths could be broken upon death. It meant anyone with a means to revive you could break your oath, even if that was vanishingly uncommon it meant there was always a chance, however slim, to break one.

  Luo fell on his face and bowed, both hands outstretched.

  “Master!”

  “Rise up, Luo. We have work to do. Violet’s spiritual foundation is cracked.”

  The words quickly ceased to matter.

  All the world began to rumble as the light at the entrance to their cave took on a blue tint.

  It was as if the light of the sun itself had been replaced and subverted by the will of a man and made to flicker as though the wrath of its fire was preeminent. Indeed there were no other concerns when the sun itself decided to withdraw its support. There was nothing to be done at all.

  The roof of the cave blew off in the hideous roar of blood through the ears and pressure of the air as the sound of a billion bolts of lighting struck at once, rupturing all eardrums for a hundred miles. Indeed, from that moment on, the only sound at all was panic. The light streaming down from where the rock had once been was not yellow but blue, as the sun had been replaced. The name of God had been replaced, and it was no longer Sol, but Ding Yi.

  He stood, arms crossed, in the sky, blue lighting like a hurricane around him.

  「Did you worms think you could escape me?」

  There was no thunder, only his voice. There was no other sound at all.

  「Did you think you could teleport under the earth and burrow your way to salvation?」

  He had taken control of reality within the space.

  「Did you think your feeble powers could possibly begin to escape mine, even for a moment? You are weak and you have always been weak. Nothing you have ever done or could ever do in the rest of your short and pathetic lives could even begin to hope of escaping the dirt beneath my feet.」

  Jiang’s heart dropped, not for himself but for Violet. They were facing certain death. Ding Yi’s voice overpowered even his own thoughts and though the flickering of lightning made it hard to see clearly, he could make out the sheer panic on Violet and Luo’s faces, and the tears streaming down them. They knew this was a certain end. They’d been alive for centuries and threw their lots in with Jiang but for what? In but a moment the die was cast, and in the same moment the die came up lacking.

  「You have lived this long because I have allowed it, and you will now die because I demand it. Do not speak. Do not try to reason about your punishment. Your lying words are meaningless before my ears in their defiance and I refuse to hear them. Now pay for the insolence of worms daring to face the sky as your kind always have and always will— with your cheap and wasteful lives!」

  Jiang faced them with no tears in his eyes.

  Violet collapsed to the ground in a heap and Luo shortly followed. Jiang remained standing. They had strove for immortality for so long… only to be met with death.

  The lighting above began striking more violently and the flashing of death grew faster. The light on their faces grew brighter and more constant. Jiang could see the tears shining in the eyes of the most recent to be killed at his hand.

  Killed when he let them down.

  In an instant it was all over. A blue flash overwhelmed the sky.

  *BANG*

  And they were all gone.

  You could not defy a tyrant.