Chapter 103: Against the Tide

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Despite growing up in a city named after its port, Liu Jin does not have much experience with the sea. The port’s best days were a thing of the past long before Liu Jin was born. From the moment the Vermillion continent was sealed away from the rest of the world, well over a thousand years ago, trade across the sea became impossible. No longer did ships loaded with goods sail across the ocean. Trade along the coastline still happened, but it made for a poor substitute. That the Storm Dragon Empire was up north did not help matters. The place is not known for its trade and commerce.

Or so had Old Jiang told him once.

That said, even if the port had been at his best, Liu Jin doubts he would have spent much time in it. Whenever he thinks back to his childhood, it seems to him he was always busy with something. The clinic. His training. The Xiao Sect. His marriage. The tournament. Every day brought something new. Time just seemed to slip through his fingers. Rarely did Liu Jin have both the time and inclination to visit the sea.

On the rare occasions where those two happened to intersect, Liu Jin would find himself staring at the tide. Beautiful though the horizon may be, interesting as some ships could be, Liu Jin’s eyes kept going back to the tide, soothed and enchanted by the water ceaselessly rising against the land.

As Liu Jin keeps dodging the mass of bodies trying to kill him, he can’t help but think this must be what fighting the tide feels like. His opponents come from all sides. Most are in the mid-levels of the Nascent Realm, though a few are in the lower levels of the Spirit Realm.

Of course, when fighting against hundreds, few is a relative term.

They do not fight as a team should. Not at all as they fought before. There is no strategy to their movements beyond rushing at him as one giant mass. They are a sea of black coming at him as furious waves. If he kills one, dozens take its place. If he stops moving for too long, he’ll be overwhelmed. If he keeps fleeing, he’ll doubtlessly tire.

Liu Jin runs. Liu Jin jumps. Liu Jin kills.

“Do.”

“Not.”

“Leave.”

“Me!”

The shades tear their way through the forest. Dozens of small creatures flee as their homes are destroyed. The stronger Spirit Beasts attack the intruders. It provides a small reprieve, yet they never last long. There is nothing they can do against the horde.

The tide never stops. It just keeps rising, swallowing the Night Forest tree by tree.

The ocean seeks to swallow him whole.

~~~

Step.

Step.

Step.

Huang Shing cannot say he cares for feeling inadequate, yet, somewhere along the way, that has become a common state of affairs.

When exactly did it begin?

With Feng Zhi, his mind supplies. It all began with Feng Zhi. The older teen had imprinted that feeling on his body the day he took Yi Jiao from him. The shock was such that Huang Shing had left everything behind in search of power, desperately seeking to improve himself. He had found the scroll containing the Nine Dragon Slaying Palms and devoted himself to it. He had fought the pirates of the Nightmare Cove. He had beaten the One-Eyed Bear of Radiant Red Peak and survived Chen Guo of the Infinite Mountain Sect.

For a moment, Huang Shing had dared to believe he was strong.

Then, upon entering the Eternal Flame Clan, Huang Shing started remembering what being inadequate felt like once more.

Meeting Qing Jin, Lu Mei, and Bei Hong has been an eye-opening experience for him. It is not that he dislikes any of them. Far from it. If anything, Huang Shing is surprised at how much he has grown to like them over the short time they’ve known each other. In them, Huang Shing can recognize the things he lacks and can only admire them for it.

However, that is also part of the problem.

They all have things he lacks.

It hadn’t bothered him while they were in the Eternal Flame Clan. He and Brother Hong got points their way while Qing Jin and Lu Mei got points their way. That was just fine by him except… Except, he had failed Qing Jin and allowed the herbs to be stolen. Had it not been for Qing Jin’s foresight, they would have been in serious trouble.

If Huang Shing had just paid better attention to the crates, none of it would have happened. He wouldn’t have had to look for Lu Mei and Bei Hong, and they would have never angered Feng Zhi. It is his blunder that has caused them to be here.

That knowledge, that certainty, keeps digging at the back of his skull each day. Huang Shing knows he should apologize, yet with every day that passes, doing it becomes just a little bit harder. Every time Huang Shing tries, his mouth freezes, and before he even knows it, he’s drifting to safer topics. Like a coward.

Worst of all, he’s been the least useful since arriving here!

Lu Mei and Qing Jin are much smarter than him and were able to investigate on their own. Bei Hong got to fight the shades at least once. He? He hasn’t done anything! He has been useless! Nowhere was that more clear to him than during the meeting the previous night. Everyone seemed to grasp everything so quickly while he could only look on in confusion!

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The only thing Huang Shing has successfully done all trip is follow Feng Zhi’s orders!

Feng Zhi!

Just thinking that name is enough to make Huang Shing’s teeth gnash against each other.

One year. Perhaps two. That’s how much of a difference there should be between them, yet Feng Zhi is on an entirely different level. It is not just his cultivation. It is the way Feng Zhi carries himself. It is how completely at ease he looks when ordering around Qing Jin, Bei Hong, and Lu Mei. Huang Shing could never think of ordering them around like that, yet Feng Zhi makes it look natural.

Even when dealing with Patriarch Wong, Feng Zhi clearly feels like the superior one. Even though Feng Zhi and Patriarch Wong are on the same level of cultivation, there is not a single doubt in Huang Shing’s mind that Feng Zhi is the older man’s superior.

Frankly, it pisses him off.

Why does Huang Shing have to keep thinking, “He knows what he is doing” every time Feng Zhi opens his mouth? Why does he have to be impressed by how in control he manages to seem at all times?

When Bei Hong came back with a wounded Qing Jin and told them what transpired in the forest, Patriarch Wong had panicked. Learning his son was involved in the attack had overwhelmed the man. However, Feng Zhi had never once hesitated. He bravely led them into the tower just as it was forming.

“We must deal with the threat right now. Once and for all.”