You Want To Play It Hard? Let’s Play It Hard.

  Jianrong awoke to a hand on the shoulder.

  Lin Su was pale.

  She was resting in the Bloom, recharging with the help of a Feral Core, when Shepard sent the message.

  City criers were shouting it on every street; it was in everyone's ears.

  If Jianrong Dar Bloodforge did not surrender, political prisoners guilty of treason would be executed.

  The names they posted were anyone and everyone Jianrong, Dar, Shepard, or Andrew had ever interacted with.

  These included the Palace's cleaning staff, the people they had tea with, and acquaintances.

  In all, Elaren and Sulara, Jang and Gaila, and the Bloodforge family knew these people, and the number count kept growing.

  Jianrong met with everyone; the stadium was filled with those who dared to listen or speak on the issue.

  In the end, not even Nadia said anything; they waited for Rong to speak.

  “Good morning, everyone.” Rong started as she rubbed her face, then looked up at the people sitting on benches in front of her.

  “Everyone here knows what is happening. They will murder until I give myself up; the moment I give up, they find this place and you. I will not let them take me, not alive at least. I need everyone to understand…this is not an option.”

  She looked at face after face.

  “Even if it were my sister, all of us would die in the end. These people have no morality, no ethics, no souls. Not even five hundred meters from here is the body of a man who murdered innocent children; he broke into the Bloom, a place, hurting no one, and murdered innocents. That is the evil we are dealing with.” She carried, not in anger but belief.

  “Rong, what about the children?!” Elaren cried out.

  Jianrong put up her hands. “Even if we hide, they may burn the whole city, so I offer another choice.”

  “What choice?” Taleth asked.

  “We take what they need,” Rong said it with finality.

  “They take pills every single day… They are the only Nascent Souls, so they had to be held somewhere secure.” Rong stated.

  “The largest pill house in Seldara made Grand Elder Ning Ya’s. They have an impenetrable pill vault that you will never get into, requiring special Aura-locked keys that have three Elders who must open it simultaneously.” Sulara stated coolly.

  Jianrong took that in. “What if a Nascent Soul tried to break into it?”

  Sulara shook her head. “It is designed to stop anyone from stealing. If one of the masters dies, they have to bring the artificer in who built it to make a new key.”

  Jianrong smiled coldly. “Sounds like we have to find three people to kill.”

  Her eyes moved around.

  “I don’t want to kill these people, but I also don’t want people we know to die. We did not choose this path; we were willing to live separately, to try and conform, but the world won't allow it. I am open to any suggestion except surrender.” Rong stated.

  “Husband, tell us what needs to happen,” Alia stated.

  Everyone smiled, even as a fox girl, Alia had never stopped thinking of Rong as Solomon.

  In her heart, Jianrong appreciated that.

  Rong looked at Dar and Andrew.

  The two nodded.

  The ministers had chosen High Minister Kelp, the most senior and with the most political pull, as their representative.

  Not that it did any good.

  The two Nascent Souls no longer met with the Ministers, nor did they read their letters or listen to conversations.

  Both resided in the Palace, and both expected to be treated as the nation's rulers.

  Every single hardliner had gritted their teeth so hard they were now reduced to drinking pain relief elixirs as they realized the nation would burn, and these two people would simply fly away.

  They had undermined Sulara and her sixty years of peace and prosperity to ‘strengthen Tianrelion. Their actions would mean the end of a nation.

  By midday, anyone and everyone knew well that once the people died who were being displayed, there was a very real chance they might meet the same fate to drag out the fox girl they were hunting for.

  The only pill hall still functioning was Seldara’s ‘Grand’ Pill Hall.

  The masters and their staff had been placed under state custody to ensure no one was hurt in the chaos.

  A large force of Gilded Sect and Tianrelion forces had secured the entire city block, closing it to traffic.

  Near where the hostages were being held in the open, a young man moved to a guard.

  “Sir, a woman with dog ears gave this to me and a silver coin to bring it to you.” He said, showing both.

  The man nodded. “Good work.” He took the scroll, then the coin, and handed them to another man.

  “You are under arrest for subversion. I am taking you into custody.” The guard stated.

  The young man blinked. “I am helping you!” he cried out.

  Another guard grabbed him and moved him to the line of people who were going be executed; they shackled him to the line.

  The young man began screaming, then pleading; finally, he was beaten into silence.

  The scroll was run to the Palace, where the ministers didn’t dare open it, and took it to Sect Master Yue.

  When Jang arrived, Yue had another person open it from across the room, just in case… since he had sent a trap via scroll to kill these same people earlier.

  Nothing happened, and the man who had been forced to open was sent away.

  Yue unfurled the scroll and leaned back.

  The words were simple.

  “Please do not do this.” Jianrong Dar Bloodforge.

  Yue read it and felt nothing beyond. “It is already working.”

  When Jang read it, she flipped it over and checked the scroll.

  “No arrays or tricks, nothing but a plea…it seems we will have to kill the group tomorrow and move to more unsavory means for her to surrender,” Jang observed.

  Yue nodded.

  The night went on without incident.

  There was no pressure or threat in the air. Yue stood on the balcony of Ning’s apartment and pondered.

  Should he start with women? Or would it make more sense to use orphans first?

  The shimmer of the Palace arrays told him he need not worry, and he returned to his room and entered the cultivation chamber.

  At the third chime near the city block that had been emptied near the pill hall, three siblings moved in the darkness with Erin, Virea, Serel, and many others keeping guard.

  Near the end of their preparations, Erin killed a guard who had heard something.

  Then it was time.

  “Last time you guys sent me up like this, I woke up days later…” she joked.

  Andrew and Dar hugged her.

  “Good luck, old man,” Andy whispered.

  Dar held her longer and spoke gently. “Every person in that place benefits from the suffering of others; don’t hold back.” He stated.

  Rong took his hand, and both clenched their unspoken agreement.

  “KILL EVERYONE”

  Then she crawled into the round rock they had compressed from earth, hollow in the middle.

  Air raced into the hole and finally stopped when it was pressurized enough.

  The others picked up a cork and slid it into place, then sealed it with Qi.

  The two rechecked their math, then had Serel check it.

  Then it was time.

  Qi flowed, and two brothers stomped.

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  The city's Arrays flickered, and in the Palace, an alert was logged; a messenger was sent to dispatch a team to investigate.

  A stone ball with holes all around it fell forward at a forty-degree angle at nine gravities.

  It only accelerated for two breaths; luckily, that was all that was needed, as it had drawn deep reserves from both brothers.

  A team stationed on the roof was chatting when some of them saw something they could not make sense of.

  “What is that?” one disciple asked.

  The three others turned and looked at the strange moon.

  Then they realized it was racing towards them, growing larger and larger.

  All the men shouted as they launched themselves from the building.

  It was a two-story fall to the ground, none had touched the ground when a ball of stone hit the roof and shattered the Array that was sealing the structure.

  Their demise was marked with a brilliant flash of light.

  Then the ten-thousand-kilogram bomb carved its way through the roof.

  When it hit the floor, it fractured wood and stone alike not slowing in the process.

  Then, on the ground floor, the earth, hard as stone, began to soften as the Qi holding it together was exhausted.

  Disciples and guards alike were screaming orders when the outer shell of Jianrong's air bubble ceased to exist.

  The several thousand kilograms of compressed air carried away everyone and everything.

  Jianrong called it the ‘Drop Bubble’; its purpose was simple.

  Land in a group, crush those who were lucky, and send everyone else flying who were unlucky.

  The structure's walls failed, and mundane objects turned into high-speed projectiles.

  People lost sight, sound, and limbs as they were forcefully ejected from the structure through whatever means possible. Some moved through walls, others through gaps, but none remained inside the structure.

  Jianrong's Spirit Sense pinged, and the inner air skin wrapped around her body and grew until she was a three-meter-tall bipedal fox.

  A breath later, she moved to kill anyone who was still alive.

  She was surprised by how fast she found the people she was looking for as they ran out to scream for help.

  Not from her.

  They wanted help against her.

  She was not cruel, but she was final.

  As the men regrouped, Rong and everyone else from the Bloom who were present fell upon them.

  By the time reinforcements arrived, there was one single person alive.

  With them was a small scroll; a woman handed it to him then disappeared into the shadows.

  Along the length, it was addressed

  “The coward Yue, and traitor Jang.”

  When Yue exited his cultivation session, he felt as if the air was alive in the room.

  The Array that protected him also sealed him in.

  Jang was waiting for him in his office.

  In front of her was a scroll she had already opened.

  He could feel her Aura was agitated.

  Without a word, he took the scroll and read it.

  “If you kill those people, we will hunt you down while you are weakened and kill you. We can fly faster and farther than you. Don’t test us.”

  Yue set down the scroll and took a seat.

  “I take it they robbed the Pill Hall?” Yue speculated that this had been within his expectations, but succeeding was not.

  Jang let out a sigh with a chuckle. “Close.”

  Yue’s brow rose.

  “They killed every single alchemist who could make Nascent Soul and Core Formation Pills.” She replied.

  Yue blinked several times. “Did you say…ALL alchemists?!”

  Jang looked at him and nodded.

  Fong Lu sat in silence.

  General Jang had made a deal that required the kid Andy to be detained; he felt for him, especially after he had gotten his brother to heal his hand.

  But now he had to find his sister, and find her… he had.

  They had placed the prisoners in a location that limited access to viewing.

  To be concealed, there were fewer than ten locations it could be done, he knew, because he and his team had checked when the first Elders had been killed.

  Jang had smiled and told him what to do; she was not an amateur like Yue. She had military training and decades of real experience.

  Fong was curious how they had destroyed an entire pill hall in a single engagement, but that could wait.

  They needed pills.

  They needed them now.

  So, they would capture the girl, get the pills, and work from there.

  Fong touched his token. “I have her in sight.”

  “Can you capture?” Jang’s response came back.

  Fong thought of who he had where.

  “She is in the Veteran Social Service building, three stories tall, stone and lumber built. With full team suppression, it should be impossible not to detain.” He explained.

  “Do not alert others, we will work this…more benefits for us,” Jang explained.

  “When?” Fong asked.

  “Now, I am en route.” She replied.

  Jianrong was on the second floor of the building that had been empty since the Empires money had gone missing. The Ministers had furloughed nearly everyone to prevent a shock to the system… which, in fact, shocked the system when thousands were left with no way to make ends meet.

  She did not use Spirit Sense, as touching a cultivator's soul from an abandoned building would cause questions.

  Jianrong looked down at the parchment in her hand, a single name. Arnold had asked if she had seen her on the wall waiting for execution.

  Her hand rested on the Great Dao, the sword she had repaired that seemed to think he was entitled to be her blade.

  “Annoying,” she thought as she kept looking through a part in the paper blinds.

  Jianrong looked at each face. “Tell Arnold she isn’t here; she is hopefully safe.” Announced.

  A Spirit Sense locked onto her.

  It did not search; it moved directly to her and held then over a dozen more…powerful ones all locked onto her.

  “Showtime,” she announced, her Aura erupted and compressed into her Gel Armor, her hand pulling the sword from its sheath as it sang.

  A sharp tug came from all around her.

  “Surrounded, gonna be messy,” she stated, moving away from the window.

  “Plan B!” she announced.

  A heartbeat later, people sailed through the window, not one or two but many.

  Qi poured into her armor as her Cores spun to life.

  Then she was swarmed by talismans, not one or two, but the air filled with them.

  Rong's mouth opened in shock.

  Then she felt that the suppression was over 90% of her Qi flow through her meridians.

  Her eyes glowed amber, her fangs glistened as her desire to kill erupted.

  What the men did not know was that it was 90% of two Soul Seas, on a person with nearly twice as many meridians.

  Qi flowed out of Rong’s entire body to feed her armor, her tail feeding the most.

  “DIE!” she screamed as her Great Dao moved in a blur, its song turning into a shriek of delight.

  Commander Guo moved like a veteran of one hundred battles because that was what he was.

  He understood the principle of the armor; they had some details, but couldn’t replicate it.

  But he knew for a fact she could tank several blows, so they would beat her until it failed.

  A pulse to his feet, and he moved in a complex pattern, his Jian moving to deflect and attack.

  His Aura was calm, his magical armor and Qi shielding in place.

  Her weapon came down to cleave him.

  Her speed was impressive: she had moved without Qi to counter him, earning his respect, but duty was duty.

  His arm rotated to deflect the Dao using Qi through his meridians that would make his limb snap in a rotation and swat away the attack.

  His attack struck the Dao and bounced away from her power and the mass of the weapons.

  The next moment, the Dao hit him with enough force to shatter his Qi shield and forced his armor to tank the attack, sending him down and rearward in excruciating pain.

  He wasn’t dead, but gods, he was in agony.

  A look of surprise crossed his face as she parried another attack, then kicked him away like she was a horse.

  Guo felt his cultivation churn as the building groaned under the combined Aura of all those present.

  “USE INTENT!” he shouted, then coughed up blood as he realized he had broken bones in his chest and shoulder.

  “Impossible.” He thought.

  Fong Lu watched as men rained down blows that dimmed her gold armor; it returned to its original color, and in return, she shattered Qi shields and endured their combined, intent-infused Aura.

  “Gods dammit, Lei Zhenyu, gain some weight!” Rong roared at the sword that felt like a toy in her hands, but moved like a dream, striking and parrying at an impossible speed.

  When people raced up from the first floor and down from the third floor, Jianrong decided it was time to go.

  Her armor would slowly drain faster than she could feed it at this rate, and her adversaries were too numerous and skilled.

  A sword parry turned into a body rotation, then her legs exploded in power, and the man she had not even looked at was smashed against Rong's accelerating form.

  One step, two steps, they met a thick wooden wall.

  The soldier's body stuck to the wall while Rong's left arm and head braced against his chest.

  The next moment, they were smashing through the obstruction to his detriment.

  Behind her, blows glanced off her fleeing form.

  “CONTAIN, CONTAIN!!” Fong screamed frantically.

  Three steps, four steps, launch.

  The man Rong was using as a meat shield screamed as he accelerated hard, the outer wall blew apart as the soldier's armor was shredded.

  The two sailed through the air into the inner courtyard.

  Then hit the ground hard.

  The meat shield absorbed her entire two hundred kilograms and acted as a cushion.

  Rong sprang up light and fast; her travel companion struggled to roll to his side to give chase, then remained when realizing he was in bad shape.

  A sword beam tore through her gel armor and buried into her bone armor.

  Jianrong’s feet never stopped moving.

  A door was blown apart as she took it full speed, lowering her shoulder and covering her face.

  The man on the other side, who was sprinting to intercept her, had a moment of realization when dozens of Spirit Senses moved to him, and he felt a pressure wave coming.

  The man was blown aside as her mass and momentum rendered his cultivation meaningless.

  She was in a hallway, and people were behind her running in anticipation for the space to use their movement arts.

  For a moment, the world opened to her; nothing was in her way.

  To Lei Zhenyu’s protest, the saber disappeared into the Bloom, and her arms started to pump.

  Rong's body leaned farther and farther forward with each step; her frown turned into a look of wonder and joy as she felt alive.

  Her tail wsa streaking behind her.

  She laughed, then, to the men’s horror, she accelerated hard when her foot hit the stone pavement.

  Her soft leather shoe was pulverized, and the clawed foot underneath fractured stone as her claws tore grooves.

  “Letssssss GO!”

  Her mind shouted as her body came alive with sensations she was unfamiliar with

  Behind her, Qi exploded from her enemy's feet.

  Others shimmered and moved as if teleporting.

  Some moved like Erin, a memory phasing in and out of reality.

  While others used raw Qi to accelerate, their entire bodies burning fuel.

  Rong didn’t care as her body loosened, her ears folded back, and a running leap sent her sailing over a single-story structure with pure muscle.

  Her arms rotated as she soared, then landed onto a road that was devoid of traffic.

  The lockdown meant that, in some cases, businesses closed temporarily; in others, permanently.

  A breath later, a wave of men followed in her wake, flying over or around the obstruction.

  All turned to the left to see her figure racing away in the middle of the road.

  They realized she was running towards the southern gate.

  She was on the main road, moving ever faster as her Aura accentuated her mechanical motion,

  Her Qi draw had dropped allowing her feed her movement, leaving a wake of her Aura and resonance.

  Her breath came in steady pulls as she ran on the balls of her feet, her claws digging in for purchase with every step.

  Her knees drove up and forward like a biological machine as she focused on keeping her limbs loose and flowing.

  The men were frantically calling out through tokens, forgetting what Jang had been adamant about.

  Soldiers and sect disciples alike appeared from checkpoints that had been abandoned to catch the person who had been killing them with impunity.

  Elders from every single sect in the city moved at their highest speed to intercept the fox.

  Then Rong had to dive aside as a wave of swordlight rained down on her and the men close behind her.

  What everyone heard made their blood run cold as she laughed loudly and freely.

  Her constantly moving feet launched her through an open window into the second story of a building.

  Without stopping, she exited through another window on the opposite side, sending material and broken wood in all directions.

  Soldiers shouted orders, and people rerouted and burned Qi to leap over obstructions.

  They were hounds trying to keep pace with a fox that could choose when and where to go.

  As the wave of cultivators collapsed inward, Jang stood high above.

  Her eyes moved to the gate, where people were in line to leave.

  At first, she considered moving directly, but watching the woman move across a rooftop on all fours, then launch herself across a road to another house with Qi, she realized speed was on her side.

  Jang accelerated toward the gate, her Aura unfolding and crushing down on everyone.

  “LEAVE OR DIE,” her voice commanded as she took position in front of the gate that locked shut.

  Jianrong felt Jang race overhead and smiled.

  “HIPITY HOPITY CHIPITY CHOPITY! MOVE YOUR ASSESS PEOPLE!” She shouted at no one as she was herded toward Jang

  Jianrong smashed into a shop, and two Elders met her coming from the other direction.

  Jang knew that all the pills had dried up, that only she and her siblings could feed them or provide what they stole.

  Everyone else had not been told because to know there was no chance of getting pills while being nearly a month in every direction by foot to a place that could make pills would mean a mass exodus of people fleeing to stay alive, their cultivation in dire jeopardy.

  Swords rained down and were met with impunity as Rong simply kept feeding Qi to her armor.

  On the other hand, one man sailed out the way he came when her feet scissored, and her heel crushed his diaphragm in a side kick.

  The other Elder shouted; his Aura erupted as Rongs snapped into a center-line spin, her clawed hand raking down his face, taking flesh and his eyes.

  Walls exploded, people rushed in, and blood began to fly as people focused on killing her more than they focused on preventing their companions from being hurt.

  Her small form and fluid motion made the shop a maze of shouting soldiers and disciples, unable to land a clean hit.

  Jang used her Spirit Sense to watch an increasingly frustrating situation spiral out of control.

  Then she saw Yue's form take flight toward them, her mood soured.

  Jang took a step and was outside the shop where cultivators were fighting like it was a drunken brawl.

  “Enough!” her voice thundered, and a crushing pressure landed on all of them.

  A moment later, Yue landed on the other side of the structure.

  Both could clearly sense the fox girl, her breath in gasps from fighting and running nonstop, her hands on the dirt ground of the basement as the floor had collapsed, surrounded by injured men.

  Jang moved through the failing structure and looked down at the fox.

  “Girl, you ruined things for me,” Jang said, her Aura pressure intensified.

  Jianrong, still covered in her Gel armor, leaned back on her haunches and looked at her.

  “You broke my brother's heart. I feel like we are even.” She replied.

  Jang smiled. Then the pressure kept increasing as those around them screamed.

  Rong gave a soft chuckle, then stood up, staring up at the woman. “Aren't you just a peach?”

  Jang’s smile fell away. “Give me what I want, or you die. You may be able to handle Aura, but we all know what you're weak against.”

  A sharp pain lanced into Rong, who put up her hands in submission.

  She reached to her left hand, where an ugly magical ring rested, and slid it off.

  “I have to assume you mean this.” With a flick of the thumb, the ring landed in her hand.

  The pressure lessened, and the General looked into the ring.

  Inside were all the pills from the Vault, but only the pills.

  Jang’s Aura fluctuated, then, off in the distance, on the opposite side of the capital, an alarm bell rang as two stone gorillas shattered the sealed gate.

  Jang blinked, then looked at Rong.

  The fox girl smiled, then gave the General two single finger salutes. “Abracadabra”

  Jianrong vanished without a trace.