I had to leave him there. I didn’t have time to do him justice. The damn enforcer had apparently brought friends. Min would see him through and then rejoin me.

  I had other problems.

  Three of them surrounded me, though they looked very uncommitted to this fight. Each one of the Mooks was bald and looked like an extra on a film satirizing martial arts films.

  “Let me explain what’s about to happen here,” I said. “You guys killed my friend. Or your boss did. Honestly, I don’t care who did it. Put you here right now in front of me and I just killed your boss. And you’re thinking we can take him. There’s three of us. But the God’s honest truth is..”

  I unveiled my Nascent Soul to them. The pressure of my energy made them all flatten against the nearest wall.

  “I told my friends that if it bothered my peace? I would burn this entire city down. Now I don’t know what you think about that. Maybe you’re feeling like he’s not going to do it.”

  I pushed harder. Every single one of them looked like they were about to shit their pants.

  “But I’m close to getting to the fifth realm,” I said, stepping once.

  The walls creaked against the strain of their bodies being pushed.

  “I don’t have time for you. A younger me would have saved you or given you a chance to repent. But I’m all out of that. No more chances.”

  I left the place as the building fell down

  I brushed some dirt off my shirt. It wouldn’t do to come out of here. Not looking the best I could look. After all, I had an image to protect.

  I took a few minutes to make sure the building crushed that nobody. A mass of humanity was moving towards the governor’s mansion. Already, I could see several canals that were red with blood. Many of those had bridges that were destroyed. They didn’t have a good reason to be heading that way.

  The Mandarin was still in the middle of a pitched battle. I couldn’t tell if they were speeding up or not.

  I saw one woman sprint towards a bridge just before it collapsed under the weight of a spirit beast.

  Fuck. I couldn’t save them all.

  In that moment of indecision, somebody else swooped in to save her. Right, this place was a strong bastion of cultivation.

  There were others that could do things I wanted to do.

  But there was only one person who could do what I had to do. I searched the skies for any more opponents. This will be the time for them to show up and engage with me.

  I unveiled my soul, daring anyone to come and get a bite of this fresh meat. I didn’t see any sign of any more floaty enemies at that exact moment. Several Mooks that had to be about the third level or approaching me from a rooftop. Their faces glinted.

  I turned more of my attention to them.

  Now some might say that they were just following orders. But in order for them to make the third realm as a demonic cultivator, they would have had to kill dozens of humans and absorbed their qi.

  I was not having that.

  They went into the game, so let’s play.

  Beneath me, the ground shook as a mandarin must have delivered another powerful blow to whoever he was fighting. It would have been incredibly useful for us to coordinate our efforts. I was at the peak of the fourth realm.

  I launched myself as at the first of them.

  Honestly, it felt like fighting against toddlers. Physically, not that difficult, but mentally it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.

  I ducked in, hitting the first one in the stomach with my right hook. Perhaps it was his dream, which to me felt like he wanted to kill me and eat me, but something propelled before wards. For the first time, I could just feel a dream coming off of the man to me. It was the worst nightmare imaginable

  It was just a split second, and it was over. He was dreaming of killing of the humans for sport. He was thinking about taking their life essence and using it to advance his own. He felt hungry. I shuddered as I hit the next guy in a temple. My feet graze on the top of the roof. And suddenly, they were having issues holding on.

  The tiles glistened under the red light of so many fires. Smoke waft in between us. I’d like to think I was a badass, but really I was just trying to be efficient.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  The second one had the same dream. It was thick. I took a second to hit a mother fucker with another mother fucker, using the man’s head as a base. I pulled him off of the ground, as if I was grabbing him by his foot. I slung him in the next man. The only one that remained standing was the one I punched in the gut.

  He still wasn’t even properly dead. I could feel his nightmare. In it, he looked up at a man with curly hair. The man was properly a realm above him, but he was going to wring his neck if he got a chance. He Just wanted a chance.

  I wasn’t going to give him that.

  He didn’t need to walk to have a dream. My qi enhanced fist crushed his sternum. Then, instead of letting him be ripped apart or fly backwards, I kept contact with my tactile telekinesis. So all of the force that I pushed into him stayed and it was a shock wave going through his body. For a moment, I felt a whimper.

  It wasn’t the whimper that caught my attention. It was his complete disregard for his own well-being. In that situation, it kind of put me out. In this situation? Why are we think going to s***? I didn’t really know what to do. I was just doing the best I could, have given what I had.

  I let him drop. There was no chance that he would get up soon. I got no more aura from his dream, whether he lived or died. Took a second to take all of his nightmare Aura in.

  I looked around for another threat. I could see a giant ghastly had to be some sort of Minor Bigfoot walking on the outskirts of town. It had to be at least three or four stories tall. They moved like it was a mini Godzilla, but slower. Based on its size. It had to be strong as fuck.

  I didn’t see anyone else going for it, so I sided with Lee and flew in that direction. After half a minute, one of my operations joined me.

  “So good to see you,” I said. “Help me in this third realm, spirit beast?”

  It will be my pleasure, she said. I think I think that my family has some of this well in hand. We need to stem the tide.

  Beyond the lumbering Sasquatch, there were more. It was like all these Titans had broken through the barrier and come in a single direction.

  You know what would help? Getting our formations masters over there so they could plug up the hole.

  I commanded my spirit beast to see if that was possible. I got the mental equivalent of a thumbs up.

  I’ll have to admit that I was not going to get the same amount of dream Aura from the spirit beast as I was from the thugs that had just attacked me. There were more than enough people having panicked nightmares at that exact moment that I could just use. That I could glean his dream and his nightmare just by being in close contact with him was a sign that I was advancing faster than I thought. I’d always hoped that I might reach the fifth realm in this year, but it was becoming clearer that it was almost that time.

  With all these dreams swirling in the area, my core felt full to bursting. This was probably the most potent that it had ever been. It was too bad that I had split with Moon Lee for the time because if I was able to push through to the fifth realm at that exact moment, I might just do that. Even if it was mid-battle. Before, I’d had the luxury of time. Now, I didn’t have that. Everyone around was going to have to fight to defend me while I pushed through the fifth threshold and beyond. I could see it clearly my mind. As we flew towards the outskirts of the city, I’d put my plan into motion. Rather than do what I normally did and cycle through it and do the normal thing where I meditate, I was just going to push. And I was going to keep pushing until I was done. Because not only were dreams something that you could think about and imagine happening. James was something that you could bring into reality on your own. And if my dream was to get through this battle and I needed to advance?

  And I would use that. I would take that dream and I would make it my own. I would make my dream intangible thing by advancing farther. I’d heard so many times that people take on the aspects of things that they want to see. A dream was a nightmare. A nightmare was a dream, depending on who was who. It was like. Squirrel hell

  I can feel it in my soul. I just needed to push through.

  “Xueyie, I’m about to advance to the fifth realm. Defend me if I look sluggish,” I said.

  “What right now, right here?” She said.

  “I’m going to pass the threshold.”

  “Don’t you want to like sit down for a minute and take your time doing that?”

  For a second, we paused in mid-air. We were a block away from the beach and it hadn’t gotten our attention yet. Or rather we had given it our friend full attention yet.

  “I’m just going to advance right now. During this fight. Just because I can.”

  “You know what? Before I met you,” she said. “I would not have believed that was possible. Possible. But now? I’ll believe it. You want my help? I’ll protect you. Call your spirit side piece, though, as well.”

  The screams of people being terrorized fluctuated our talk. Right there was a monster…

  “I’ll hit him high. You hit him low?” I said.

  “Just give me a second to get set up,” she said. She sprinted off.

  The spare bite beast realized by now had realized that we were there. And by now it was looking at the little girl who was tickling its knee. Or at least the woman that was annoying it. It gave her the slightest bit of a detention. And then I flew in right by its face. It was an ugly creature. When I say Sasquatch, I really mean it. It was hairy. It was muscly; it was gross, and it was exactly what would keep me awake at night if I saw it on a commercial for a meat stick.

  In that exact moment, I probably looked like a little meat stick to it. It opened its maw, showing a disconcerting amount of teeth both in number and in rows. With three rows of teeth, the thing definitely ate enough. It was not what would leave a plate unfinished on the table. Honestly, it probably also ate the table as well, if I’m being honest.

  “Well hello there Guvnah,” I said. “Welcome to Western Jewel. This is me, Joe pitch, your welcoming committee. We’re so glad you came to come visit our Fair City and now let me tell you what a special we have on a two-for-one deal.”

  The bee swiped at me, much lower than I expected. Given its relative rank and size. It should have been so much faster. It looked like instead of putting anything into its body; it put everything into its belly.

  Right? Well as a new neighbor, I just want you to know about our favorite game here, which is called bait and switch.

  I knew it was listening. I couldn’t tell whether it was paying attention to what was happening to its knee. But at that exact moment, I pushed forward at the same time that she pushed backwards, causing the beast to topple over. It really was the most elastic way to fight an enemy honestly.

  But there’s no honor in combat or war. It’s just winning. And I’m not known for losing battles.

  Not even custody battle.