“That’s not a plan,” He Yu said.

  “Do you have a better one?” Yan Shirong asked. His tone was a bit more indignant that He Yu thought he deserved.

  The plan, if it could be called that, involved using Yan Shirong’s shadows to effectively blind the guards while they passed through the gates. Never mind the fact the gates remained sealed as part of the lockdown, or that none of them knew if they’d be able to open them.

  Of course, He Yu didn’t have a better plan. At least Yan Shirong suggested they try it well into the night. The darkness would hide their approach, with Yan Shirong’s Darkwalker Shroud doing the rest. Once they reached the gates, he would plunge the area into darkness, and they’d pass through.

  He Yu and Yan Shirong went back and forth for some time, before He Yu eventually had to admit that as bad a plan as it seemed, their other options were significantly worse. Although Chen Fei stayed out of the disagreement, her skepticism was plain to see. In the end, they all agreed to it, and all that was left was to wait until the early hours of the morning.

  When the appointed time finally arrived, they stood and made for Iron Gate City. The moon was bright overhead, casting the flat, barren land outside the city in silver light. To He Yu’s senses, it was practically bright as day. Yan Shirong assured him it wouldn’t be a problem. As if to prove it, he called forth a mass of shadow, stretching out from beneath a few tufts of grass to cover all three of them in a blanket of darkness.

  He Yu didn’t mention the spike of qi in his spiritual perception. They’d committed to their course of action. He Yu had to admit that among their limited options, it was the least worst.

  They approached the wall, staying clear of the gate itself. The construction was more like the kind found on forts rather than common cities. A section of wall protruded out from where the main gate would be, creating an enclosed courtyard of sorts. The smaller gate in this second wall that allowed access to the courtyard itself was set parallel to the main fortification, facing to the east rather than the south. The inner courtyard provided an area for marshaling troops in defense of the city, or to slaughter anyone who breached the smaller outer wall while they dealt with the more fortified inner gate.

  Sneaking into a fort, it turned out, wasn’t something easily done.

  Once they’d gotten as close as Yan Shirong deemed acceptable, he expanded his Darkwalker Shroud. It was his movement technique, and He Yu had to hand it to him—a partial activation like this took a considerable amount of control and skill to maintain. He could only assume Yan Shirong had to tap into some aspect of his Wayborn Seed to maintain it. A seeker of secrets had to have some resonance with skulking about where they weren’t supposed to, after all. Yan Shirong had always been adept at stealth, and the intervening years working with the Ministry of Information had only sharpened his skills, it seemed.

  Upon reaching the gate, things went about as well as He Yu had expected. The two guards, both at middle Body Refining, immediately noticed their approach. Spearheads dipped in their direction, and one of them produced a talisman from their storage treasure.

  A snaking tendril of shadow leaped from beneath the guard’s feet and yanked the talisman from his hand. The guard shouted.

  He Yu cursed.

  Two Third Realm presences bloomed out—a poorly defined mix of earth and fire. He Yu could barely tell them apart. Yan Shirong appeared behind the two guards, stepping from an unnaturally deep shadow. Darkness fell over the two guards at the same moment it lifted from around He Yu and Chen Fei.

  “Gate formation?” he asked as they broke into a run. Both of them still kept their presences restrained, hoping to draw as little attention as possible.

  “It will be on the inside,” she said.

  He’d been afraid of that.

  When they reached the gate, He Yu placed a hand on either of the iron-bound double doors and pushed. Wood splintered and cracked. Iron screamed as it bent. The gates strained, with silver light flaring on the far side as the formations activated. He Yu called down the pillars of the Empyrean Ninefold Body Tempering. The gates exploded inward, flying off their hinges and sending splintered wood and twisted iron bands across the inner courtyard. Trumpets and drums sounded from within the city.

  The three of them rushed into the courtyard. He Yu shot a look over his shoulder. The two guards hung from the wall, each wrapped in a cocoon of shadow. At least Yan Shirong had bought them a moment to deal with the inner gate.

  “What now?” He Yu asked.

  Before anyone could answer him, the inner gate swung open. A dozen cultivator guards stood ready, each carrying a spear and shield. Activating the Peerless Judgment revealed they were all either Foundation or Body Refining.

  “Try not to hurt anyone!” He Yu shouted as Yan Shirong and Chen Fei’s presences both expanded to fill the courtyard along with his own.

  “Got it,” Chen Fei called from his side.

  “You can’t be serious,” Yan Shirong muttered. “Fine.”

  He Yu landed in the middle of the guards and activated the Bracing Wind. The burst of wind qi scattered the less advanced cultivator guards, sending all but a few tumbling to the ground. Shadow erupted from every spot of darkness to wrap around the guards, and a brilliant silver array of formation characters filled the air.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  The gate trembled as it tried to close—the defensive formations attempting to seal off the incursion into Iron Gate City. Chen Fei’s Seventy-Two Blessed Symbols seemed enough to keep it open, but the gate formation would win out soon enough. He Yu shouted for the others to get inside, and Chen Fei made it through just as the massive inner gate to the city slammed shut.

  Yan Shirong stepped from the shadows, one hand working in an intricate series of gestures as his Umbral Puppetmaster technique tied down most of the cultivator guards. Chen Fei dealt with the rest, trapping them inside formation barriers.

  “We need to get away from the gate,” Yan Shirong said. “Reinforcements will be along shortly.”

  They set off deeper into the city as drums and trumpets continued to sound the alarm. All around them, the citizens of Iron Gate City reacted to what He Yu imagined many assumed was an attack. Lanterns winked out, bars slammed down over doors, and furtive faces peeked out of windows. From all over the city, the Peerless Judgment warned of presences converging on the south gate. Most were of the Second or Third Realm, but with each passing moment, more Golden Cores joined in. It would be tough to deal with them without harming any.

  “At least we’re inside,” Chen Fei offered as they dashed through the deserted streets.

  They’d pulled back their presences for the time being. Hopefully that would be enough to buy them some time, and then eventually lose any pursuit. He Yu didn’t like their chances. Any guard with a half-decent perception technique would be looking for them, and two Golden Cores and a Nascent Soul weren’t exactly the easiest spirits to hide. The days when He Yu could escape notice were long over.

  They ducked into alleys and took quick turns onto random side streets. As they ran, they relied solely on their raw physical strength and speed, foregoing the use of even body enforcement techniques. If they’d any hope of losing their pursuers, it lay in their ability to make themselves as unobtrusive as possible. Easier said than done, given their advancement.

  By now, He Yu had banished any doubts they were being tracked. Either someone with a perception technique akin to his own, or a geomancer, or by some other technique. The pursuit was too regular. Groups of guards would pop out from side streets and attempt to block their escape. Fortunately, they were all weak enough that He Yu and the others could deal with them easily enough. And without causing too much damage.

  At least if one thing had worked out in their favor, it was that He Yu didn’t need to resort to killing weaker cultivators who were just following orders. Besides, the guards had no idea that these three mysterious cultivators that had just forced their way into a heavily defended city only wanted to meet up with a friend. If there was one thing working in their favor, it was that they’d not caught the attention of any stronger cultivators yet. That let them avoid revealing their advancement and let them stay out of any serious fights.

  Rounding a corner, they found themselves in a walled-off, dead-end courtyard. The only conventional way out was the way they’d come in from, but already the heavy footfalls of approaching guards echoed down the deserted city streets. They could always just go over the walls, escaping across the rooftops. But that would only draw more attention to them.

  “We’ll tie them down here with techniques, then head back down the alley,” He Yu said.

  “This would be so much easier if we didn’t have to worry about their well-being,” Yan Shirong said. “I’m sure there are enough pills to go around that we could take a limb or two.”

  “No. The less damage we cause, the better it will work out for us,” he said.

  “Tell that to them,” Yan Shirong shot back.

  The guards parted, and two cultivators wearing captain’s uniforms stepped forward. Both held jian at the ready, and were late Golden Core.

  “By the order of Lord Wang Xiaobo, stand down and submit yourselves to the laws of the Twilight Empire,” one of them shouted.

  He Yu kept a hold of his spirit, as not to reveal his true advancement just yet. His guandao still sat within his storage treasure, too. Although he was completely out of ideas, he still hoped they’d find a way out of this without a fight. That the guard had declared for Wang Xiaobo rather than any of the Li didn’t leave him with much hope, though.

  Chen Fei shot a glance at He Yu. “What do we do?”

  “We stand our ground,” He Yu said.

  The two Golden Core guard captains both flared their presences and advanced. The guard company behind them followed.

  “We’re not getting out of this without hurting anyone,” Yan Shirong said. “Unless we run. Now.”

  He was right. If they wanted to avoid a fight, they’d have to take to the roofs. That would reveal the extent of their cultivation, and likely call down even more advanced experts to deal with them. He Yu didn’t like the idea, but it was their best option.

  “Alright,” he said. They’d figure out a way to deal with it, somehow. “Let’s go.”

  The night lit up with brilliant silver light. The temperature in the plaza plummeted, and frost covered the ground. A lone figure appeared between He Yu and the advancing guards in a burst of ice crystals. Half frozen, half bare, the taiji stamped itself onto the plaza. Clad in robes of pale blue and silver, he stood in the middle of a frost covered field.

  Li Heng brought the cold silence of an eternal winter. The dispassionate silver glow of the full moon. The dark expanse of a starless sky, and the eternal promise of endless night. He stood fully in the Fifth Realm, at long last on equal footing with He Yu once again.

  The reaction was instant. The lower realm guards all fell to their knees in kowtow while the captains bowed deeply over clasped fists.

  “Lord Li,” the more senior of the captains said, “there is no need to concern yourself with these troublemakers. Please, allow us to dispatch them, so you may return to whatever business you were roused from.”

  “I will handle things from here,” Li Heng said. His voice was colder than He Yu remembered it. The sharp tone that reminded him of the first time they’d met sent a spike of apprehension through him. Chen Fei gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

  There was a moment of hesitation from the guard captain. Too much hesitation, apparently.

  “I said go.” Li Heng’s voice was hard. His spirit flared for an instant and frost crept across the flagstones toward the guards. The low-ranked guards stood and marched off, unwilling to test the newly arrived scion. A moment later, the captains followed.

  Once they’d gone, Li Heng finally turned to face them. The twin silver streaks in his hair had grown thicker with his advancement and seemed to glow in the moonlight. His features softened when he locked eyes with He Yu. Stepping forward, Li Heng extended a hand. He Yu released his breath as he gripped Li Heng’s forearm.

  “It’s been a long time, little brother,” Li Heng said, flashing him a familiar smile. “Things aren’t well, as I’m sure you’ve already figured out. Come, Wang Xiaobo is no doubt already on his way. We don’t have much time.”

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