Soul of Blades - Interlude: Outer Disciple Jun Li (Patreon)

Authors note: expanded to reveal how much of an ungrateful evil a** Jun Li is. Like, I’m sure this guy would tip over a wheelchair if it was slightly faster than him.

Anyways, enjoy.

Interlude: Outer Disciple Jun Li

Jun Li stood in their secret ‘training ground’, which was really just a small divot in the valley where their branch sect resided, surrounded by the early morning mist. Moisture clung to his clothes, making them cling to his skin. He watched Mo Ye from the corner of his eye, a coil of envy tightening in his gut. 

Mo Ye stood across the field from Jun Li, his form solitary against the petalled backdrop like a rising sun against the horizon, yet brighter, somehow. He was always brighter. Mo Ye inhaled, a soft, almost imperceptible intake of breath. The flowers at his feet swayed in a wide circle without wind, evidence of soft rivers of Qi seeping into his drawn breath, unseen.

He exhaled with perfect cadence and a single step, almost appearing to vanish due to the speed of his movement, shooting forward in a single instant. Mo Ye’s figure was sharp against the dawn, clearly distinct from one moment to the next, reappearing in a display of swirling robes with his initiate’s garments swaying to settle like tree leaves after a storm. An impact of wind and disturbed air caused the surrounding foliage to billow and fall, settling back earth to trace the path of his perfection. 

Mo Ye's movements were fluid, embodying the 'Bull charges the Earth' technique with an elegance that seemed almost effortless. Not a mark was made on the ground within his testmate’s path. The only evidence of his execution of the technique was the crushed foliage and leaves that swayed and billowed without wind, disturbed by his manipulation of Qi. 

Jun Li was chagrined by the sight and attempted to do the same.

Breathe in. Move. Exhale.  He turned his attention back to his own stance. He inhaled deeply, trying to mimic the fluidity he had just observed. His arms extended, attempting to channel his Qi through a path in the precise, controlled manner required for the technique. The Qi within him felt turbulent, resisting his command. Breathe in. Move. Exhale, he repeated.

He took a step forward, intending to initiate the technique. His foot placement was off. He stumbled slightly, disrupting the flow of his Qi. He righted himself, cheeks burning with the heat of his frustration and shame.

“You’re distracted” Mo Ye noted, pointing at the trail of destruction Jun Li had left in his failed attempt. “That is why you struggle.”

“Yes. By the danger.” Jun Li's response was swift, without pause or thought.

Mo Ye, pausing to sit across from him, plucked a blade of grass, examining it. "Danger? You mean the anomaly?" His tone was light, dismissive.

"Yes, that 'danger.' Sitting here, pretending it'll resolve itself." Jun Li watched Mo Ye, noticing the ease with which he leaned back, the light in his eyes not dimmed by the weight of their situation. A heavy sigh escaped Jun Li, drawing Mo Ye's attention. “We cannot allow it to continue.”

Anomalies were unpredictable and unbound. Jun Li didn’t care that the history books claimed anomalies without kill orders to be harmless, potentially resolvable errors. Logic dictated that an anomaly was dangerous and disruptive, and an element to be erased simply by virtue of its anomalous nature.

Mo Ye, unfazed, countered with a question, tilting his head. "And what would you have us do, Jun Li? Risk everything on a whim? On suspicion?”

Silence. The consequences of disqualification gave him pause. Frustrated, Jun Li settled once more into his stance. He inhaled deeply, attempting to center his Qi, but it churned inside him like a wild storm, refusing to be tamed.

His attempt at the technique ended in failure. 

While Jun Li failed, Mo Ye executed another attempt, slightly better than the last and much better than Jun Li’s flailing. The leaves of Mo Ye’s passing were less crushed,  but the disturbed air and foliage moved in ways that signaled poorly controlled Qi. A perfect execution would leave no trace at all. He had failed to master the technique, too. 

That made Jun Li feel better, but his personal failure still filled him with rage. He was still the worker of the two.

He turned to face Mo Ye in anger. "Why do you carry our burden of the anomaly as if it were a stone in our pockets, easily discarded?" his voice heavy with an unspoken accusation. 

Mo Ye's laughter, light and untroubled, filled the space between them. "Because it is a stone. To be skipped across a lake, not an anchor to drown us."

Mo Ye executed the technique once more, blinking across the space in a whirl of displaced Qi and crushed foliage, displaying further improvement.

Mo Ye leaned back, carefree ease drifting off his posture in waves, his voice floated towards his counterpart, light as the breeze. "You worry too much, brother. What can a mortal do?"

Jun Li watched Mo Ye with a mix of irritation, anger and envy. His Brother. Once the word had meant much to Jun Li, now all it did was remind him of his inadequacy. The morning's calm did little to soothe the storm within him. 

"It's not a mortal.” Jun Li replied. tension visible in the clench of his jaw. “It is an Anomaly.” 

"Yes, but remember what Master Li said. All anomalies die; they barely survive a single month past their kill orders.” A pause, then Mo Ye glanced at Jun Li, his eyes painted with care and concern for his siblings' wellbeing. “You are being... excessively wary."

“I am being prudent.” Jin Li’s response held no doubt.

Mo Ye simply laughed, swiping with a branch as if it were a sword. His Qi lashed out to eviscerate the ground in a wild and uncontrolled display of power. Jun Li blanched at the sight. He had no idea what he’d just witnessed, they had not been taught how to do that.

Mo Ye's expression sobered, his laughter dying. He sighed, looking skyward. “We follow paths laid by those before us. That is why we fought to join this sect, and not rot with a single broken serf-world to share between our house and not a single servant to our name. I won’t return to that.”

Silence followed his statement. They resumed practice.

Jun Li inhaled and stretched his arms, striving for the fluid grace he had observed from his sibling. Breathe in. Move. Exhale,  he mentally cycled, yet as he surged forward, missteps marred his execution: a misplaced foot, his balance skewed, causing dirt and crushed flowers to spray the air as he shot forward at speeds no baseline human could comprehend. 

His Qi swirled chaotically within despite his best efforts, he found it infuriating. I should be better than him… I should be better than all of them, his fist clenched at the dirt, shaking with shame and indignation.

Jun Li watched Mo Ye, the calm on his brother’s face grating against his own turmoil.

Mo Ye shifted in execution. He breathed and moved, blurring past his sibling in a Qi filled winds of near-perfection. A feat Jun Li could only helplessly witness. It filled him with more rage than the thought of an anomaly within their charge ever could.

Mo Ye looked at him with robes billowing, the hint of a frown forming. "And rushing in might cost us everything. Is it worth it?"

Jun Li turned, his gaze catching the morning light. "Not acting guarantees our failure," he almost yelled, holding himself back at the last instance. “We cannot wait and I won’t wait. It absolutely has to die by any means.”

Jun Li turned away, a bitter taste in his mouth. Watching and waiting was all he felt he'd ever done, always a step behind his brother, always in Mo Ye's shadow. Even his ascension to cultivation was covered in shade.

"There are rules," Mo Ye reminded gently, "There will be consequences if we're caught intervening. I won’t lose my chance to advance as a cultivator."

Mo Ye turned and shot forward in a whirl of robes and inhuman speed, less foliage destroyed this time. Less visible signs of displaced Qi, blinking from one place to the other. His form had improved while Jun Li’s remained stagnant.

Jun Li snarled in frustration. With a step forward, he launched into the technique, blurring forward, but his harmony was fractured—foot askew, punch skewed, carving a scar in the earth, a wake of shattered blossoms and torn earth marking his turbulent passage. His too-deep inhale and too-sharp exhale, threw his Qi through the wrong pathways and into disarray, a painter splashing discordant colors across a once harmonious canvas. Another failure. His cheeks flushed, not from exertion, but from the sting of frustration and the shadow of shame. He yelled at his brother, “you are going to cost me EVERYTHING!”

His fist smashed into the earth beneath them sinking slightly into its mounds. The ground trembled for the briefest of moments. “Do not stop me, brother.” He said.

Mo Ye simply observed.

Mo Ye's silence spoke volumes, he turned away, his gaze settling on the distant mist-covered hills and meadows. He crouched, slightly, assuming the stance of the bull he sought to master. 

Jun Li looked on, helpless.

Inside, his turmoil twisted tighter. It wasn't just the anomaly that gnawed at him, but the ease with which Mo Ye seemed to navigate their world—a world that felt like a constant battle to Jun Li.

Mo Ye disappeared, charging the earth to resume his training. This time, not a single leaf swayed as he disappeared. 

His brother had mastered the technique.

Whereas Jun Li continued to fail. The earth beneath them became scarred with paths of his failure, and the foliage surrounding them removed until the space became barren. With each attempt, his thoughts became focused on singular singular emotions.

Anger. Hatred. Shame. Worry. Concern. More anger, and then fury that turned to pure rage.

Deep within, Jun Li’s rage and resentment lay not in the anomaly, but in jealousy and envy. He found himself hating Mo Ye—not because he was a fool, But because he was better.

The anomaly too, by nature of its existence, held the potential to be better, and unconstrained. He hated it for that sole reason alone.

With each failure Jun li found himself hating them both in equal measure, though he tried to focus solely on the dangerous anomaly. 

Destroying it would be the first step of his ascension to the heights of power.

As he seethed in thought, his brother blurred past without even so much as a speck of displaced earth, perfection incarnate.

Jun Li watched Mo Ye’s perfection with barely concealed resentment as the clouds above them shifted, the morning light spilling through the misty hills surrounding the valley, stretching the shade that seemed to deepen the divide between them.

In both ethos and skill, his testmate left him far behind.

***

The sky cracked, a beastly roar slicing through the silence of the valley. Jun Li's legs carved paths through the meadow, a blur against the tranquil backdrop.

He sprinted. The valley's meadows were a blur beneath his steps, his speed was more than human. But behind, nothing pursued.

Blood painted his robes. His own and the blood of beasts. And the blood of his brother.

It was everywhere. It clouded his vision as Jun Li ran. Tears did too. Although whether they were tears of sadness or elation, he couldn’t tell.

So Jun Li ran. Legs propelling him forward, faster. His breath came in sharp gasps. He had made a choice. A hard, cold choice. 

It had caused him to grow stronger.

Forgive me, he thought. A plea to the winds. To the brother left behind. 

He recalled the beast, its massive form tearing through the valley, destroying the peace of their hidden training ground. "Is it a spirit beast?" his voice had quivered, the unknown fueling his fear. And the fear. It had gripped him then, tight and cold, paralysing.

Mo Ye had stood beside him, unshaken and confident. "No, it’s not. Just a monster of mana.”

“Channel your Qi,” he had advised, eyes sharp, a scoff following his assessment. “To your eyes, brother.”

Jun Li silently seethed at the need to be instructed by his better. Still he outshines me, he had thought. He begrudgingly followed his brother's instruction. 

Jun Li saw the truth through Qi-enhanced eyes. The creature lacked Qi. It was merely a monster of mana. With a surge of confidence, he had unleashed his strength. He was a bull, charging the earth, a trail of gouged foliage following his charge as he moved, tearing through the beast as if it were made of paper. The beast before them had crumbled under his godlike force. He hadn’t even deigned to properly employ his technique. 

He pursed his lips at the memory as he ran.

In that instant a much larger beast had crashed into their clearing. A majestic thing of muscle, sinew, and beauty. Jun Li had scoffed, believing it to be a mere monster, filled with a reckless bravado. He looked upon it with Qi-enhanced sight and was nearly blinded by what he saw.

True horror awaited. A spirit beast, at a stage of cultivation leagues above his own. So high it was unreadable. How was it here? Why was it here? its presence had been a suffocating weight. They could not win. Jun Li knew it like he knew the sun burned.

The beast had stepped forward as he blinked away the stars in his vision. Its movements had been slow, calculating, demanding acquiescence. Or sacrifice.

And its eyes…filled with hunger and intelligence.

Jin Li paused. A deep inhale. Would he die there? How could he survive? The decision had weighed heavy. His hands had shook, not from exertion but from the weight of his options. 

He made his choice. A decision born of desperation, frustration, and fear. And hatred. 

Moisture blurred his vision.

Breathe in. Move. Exhale. He had thought.

He attacked. Not the beast, but Mo Ye, striking from behind. Once. Twice. Three times. His brother's form crumpled to the ground, a distraction for the beast's hunger.

The ground had remained intact, and not a leaf had been altered by his trajectory. The air remained unmoved, its Qi expertly manipulated. Through his betrayal, he had exhibited a perfect execution of technique. Perhaps the heat of battle was all he had been missing? He had thought deep in his heart as he removed his fist from Mo Ye’s spine. 

Perhaps he was the one that was better?

Meadow grass, a green blur below. He did not look back as he sprinted. He could not. The path demanded all he had. Ahead, the sect, a haven now drawing closer. As he ran, his jaw clenched in a silent scream of liberation, his face a mix of unreadable emotions.

Drops fell. Not from clouds. From Jun Li's face. Streaks on skin.

The distance to safety grew shorter, the price paid stretching infinitely behind him.

A thought returned to him unbidden, caused by emotions that bubbled beneath the surface of his paper-thin grief. 

He had survived. He had moved perfectly. 

Perhaps the beast had come to assist him?

Perhaps he was destined to rise through sacrifice? 

Perhaps he was the strongest? 

In that moment, he had moved even faster than most initiates in his sect. He had mastered the technique in an instant, through battle. 

He was strong. Stronger than Mo Ye, who believed himself better.

He cackled as he ran, a grim sound that rang through the meadow.

Mo Ye had thought himself his better, but no one was better than him and no one would be better than him. Any who dared to try would meet the same fate.

Broken, defeated by his hand.

***

Days Later

In a higher realm in the heart of the Martial Empire, Jun Li the outer disciple brooded.

The grandeur of the Imperial homeworld was lost on him. His eyes, instead, were fixated on the glowing screens projected from a peculiar device - a treasure bestowed upon him by his sect. Information and images flickered before him, painting his face in a dance of luminescent colours as his eyes flicked back and forth, glowing runes and symbols illuminating his resolute face. From the world he was tasked to conquer in less than a year, the anomaly had seemingly disappeared without a trace

His test-mate, Mo Ye, had believed himself more naturally gifted than he was. Mo Ye’s talent for cultivation had clouded his vision. He had constantly dismissed Jun Li’s worries with arrogance, undeterred by the potential peril hiding behind the anomaly they'd detected. Mo Ye had been a fool, and now he was dead.

"The creature will perish without guidance, perhaps that is why it has disappeared. Trust in the system, Jun Li. It has yet to give us warning." Mo Ye had constantly said with disdainful flicks of his wrist. But the gnawing worry at its existence had never left Jun Li. He still felt it now.

What if the anomaly hadn’t perished? As improbable as the notion seemed, what if their system had missed something?

Serfs did not just simply vanish, at least, not without a trace.

This anomaly, untrained, unguided, without any tutorial - had completely disappeared. True, It should have been dead by now. Yet, there was no record of its demise. No ‘death log’. Nothing. Mo Ye would have insited it was gone, if he was still here. But for Jun Li, the void it’s mysterious absence left behind gnawed at any semblance of peace.

It was alive. He could feel it in his marrow.

Things were not adding up.

His fingers moved, dancing patterns over the treasures controls, tracing the runes embedded into the metal surface. He needed to find this anomaly, silence it before it became a threat. Without being caught or accused of cheating. It was a monumental task, he realised, as his treasure alerted him to another world without its trace. After countless days of the treasure scanning hundreds, thousands of worlds, an alert chirped softly from the treasured communication jade he held in his hand.

It had found it. The anomaly.

What had it been up to? It couldn’t have more than a week or so worth of levels, a mere ants strength. But even so, how did it even get off-world?

Excitement and dread filled him as he peered through the details, the anomaly was on… an Imperial world.

Jun Li's eyes shot open in disbelief as he read the location. What? that didn't make sense. System users, the so-called 'slave races,' shouldn't have been able to set foot on these sacred cultivation grounds, not without immediately dying horrible deaths in the energy rich environments. Unless... they ascended to the status of high servants - the strongest system users deemed fit to enough to serve cultivators. But that was simply an impossibility, the treasure reported the anomaly’s level as not even having reached the hundreds, It should have died the instant it set foot in a higher world. It defied reason. Jun Li knew that its level had to be less than 70. It was still a chick, ripe for reaping. Yet, the anomaly was there.

This kind of resourcefulness was worrying. Without remedy this blunder would surely have consequences.

His thoughts turned dark. What if the anomaly managed to cause a ruckus? Any chaos traced back to him would mean banishment. He would be tossed from the sect, left to eke out a precarious existence in the wild. Or return to the poverty of sharing the Qi of a broken world. Worse yet, he could be crippled, his paths to cultivation and glory forever barred. The mere thought made him shudder.

Exile would be the most generous punishment, whereas crippling would be a fate worse than death.

The realisation marked a turning point. The anomaly was more dangerous than he could possibly imagine. His body moved on autopilot, his mind grappling with the ramifications. He was fresh from his initiation into his sect, barely a fledgling on the path of cultivation, and lucky to have passed the sects requirements and been accepted to outer discipleship. He had struggled and strived all just to achieve the first stage of cultivation; Qi gathering. Soon, he would establish himself as a promising entrant, and someone worth investing resources and backing to. He could not afford to lose face to such a blunder so soon. Anomalies were rare in history, and never survived more than a few weeks. But they always, without fail, brought catastrophe to the cultivators that spawned them. Either through damaging their reputation or sheer misfortune. However, despite this, he was confident he could exterminate a mere magic user.

After all, they were always killed in the end, as soon as they were found and a kill order was issued. Some even on the first day.

Jun Li's heart beat a steady, increasing crescendo in his chest as he swiftly moved towards the departure plane.

Within this latest development lay an opportunity. He was forbidden from entering his designated world, at least until the day of conquering. But nothing forbade him from entering other worlds.

Nothing at all.

He would need help to reach another realm, as he was far too weak to own a spatial array or have the ability to planeswalk. He needed assistance. A high cultivator's assistance was costly, but it was a price he was willing to pay to eradicate this pest. He would not, and could not tell others from his sect— they would merely insist it was insignificant and would die soon, while fervently resisting any excessive expense or action, only caring for cultivation. To Jun Li, they were all simply talented fools, blessed with power they had not earned.

No, he had to do this himself. Jun Li’s steps were heavy with the weight of responsibility, he moved swiftly, his once calm demeanour now clouded with urgency. His position within the hidden sect depended on this. His path to ascension even more-so. He had to act, and act fast. The time for deliberation was over; it was time for action.

Today, the anomaly would die by his hand.