Song Fan ended his cultivation and opened his eyes. It had been good progress once again, the resources acquired in his recent conquers having done wonders to push him forward. He had only just reached the seventh stage and yet he had already taken quite a significant step towards the eight, so much so that he would probably reach it faster than he had managed for the two proceeding stages. This was the real perk of commanding an army and one of the more selfish reasons he had pushed for splitting the Roaring Thunder Sect's forces like they had.

If he had fought alongside Patriarch Zhou, most of the loot would undoubtedly have gone into his treasuries, added to the Zhou Family's ever-growing mountain of unused wealth. Not that they were of any use to him anyway, the man thankfully being entirely unable to further advance his already monstrous cultivation before he figured out how to step into the next Realm – something that Song Fan silently hoped would never happen.

Song Fan streched his back and placed his hands on the armrests of the throne he was seated on. It wasn't his of course, but that only made it all the more comfortable and its proper owner wouldn't be needing it anymore anyways.

His army was currently resting in the ruins of what had been the Raging Bear Sect prior to their arrival. Celebrations had entered the third day and were showing no sign of slowing down.

Something about plundering a defeated enemy, about downing their finest liquor like the cheapest rice wine at a local inn, about tearing open their homes and breaking the locks to their treasuries, about bathing in the excess of loot won through blood and sweat filled a deep, carnal desire in his men. Whether it was a result of his leadership, of their life at the sect or simply of the human condition didn't matter. As long as it kept the spirits high and the morale steady, it was worthwhile.

That didn't mean they could waste time here forever though. There were more sects to conquer before this war ended, if only because they wouldn't be getting such a great chance to loot for a long time afterwards.

There was also the matter of Zhiwen Shao's army that Song Fan needed to investigate. They hadn't heard anything from them in a long while, even though they should have been done subjugating the School of Blooming Dawn some time ago. Zhiwen Shao was usually the first to announce his successes to anyone who would listen, so this was at least mildly worrying.

He'd send out his scouts as soon as they returned from their current mission, investigating rumors of the supposed sighting of an unknown army. He now regretted having even sent them after what was almost certainly just peasants' babbling, but the issue with Zhiwen Shao had only become apparent after they had already departed.

As if summoned by his deliberations, his soul sense suddenly picked up on the quickly approaching presence of a fourth stage water cultivator, which only matched one person in his army: Xiyu Zhai.

From what his senses were telling him, she stormed through the palace, ignoring guards, servants and other elders, only coming to a halt right before the doors of the throne room. Curious what had her in such a hurry, Song Fan raised his voice.

"You may enter."

Xiyu Zhai followed his suggestion, pushing through the doors and striding into the room… or perhaps swiftly hobbling was a better term; the woman's visible exhaustion was still the most flattering part of her appearance, to say the least. Her armor was scratched and bruised, the exposed cloth torn to rags. She was caked in dried mud and sweat – which would have been easy to get rid of in a couple of minutes for a water cultivator, so she must have been in a hurry – and her shoulder was splattered with blood from a cut to the neck.

"Lady Zhai… I don't suppose you ran through a rose bush or ten on your way here?"

She ignored his condescending tone and breathlessly stammered out the answer to the implied question.

"The Lunar Peaks Sect. The sighted group belongs to the Lunar Peaks Sect."

"Oh. That's… suboptimal. Mind giving me a rundown?"

Song Fan didn't let his surprise leak into his voice.

"The sighting we were sent out to investigate. It's a force from the Lunar Peaks Sect. Not a full army, maybe four or five hundred cultivators and at least one elder. At least one…"

She paused for a moment before continuing, seemingly lost in her memories. An embarrassing display for a cultivator her age.

"We sighted them yesterday morning, but they noticed us as well. One of them followed our scouts back to camp and attacked us. It was Elder Ma Rong. He probably didn't expect so many of us to be there, so he retreated. We pursued him and cornered him in the forest. We fought; he beat us. All the rumors saying he was peaceful are dead wrong, he's a menace if I ever saw one."

She shuddered.

"He killed the other elders; I only escaped by a hair's width. I think he pursued me, but I managed to shake him off due to his injuries… I don't even know where I lost him, I was just focused on getting away. He also poisoned our camp with something, I don't know what it was, I don't even understand how he did it. I have no idea if anyone survived, as soon as I saw them laying there, I continued on. From there, I raced here as fast as I could…"

"Enough.", Song Fan cut off the woman's rambling.

"So, the Lunar Peaks Sect has joined the war. Unfortunate. I hoped their internal struggles would keep them occupied for at least a few more weeks. And you're telling me that you could have brought me the alchemist, but you brought me the news of three dead Dao Contemplation cultivators instead? Stellar!"

Flinching before his accusation-dripping sarcasm, Xiyu Zhai defended herself.

"We almost had him. He was already heavily injured, but he had some kind of secret alchemy weapon…"

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"The oldest, most skilled and most accomplished alchemist that the peninsula has seen in a millennium had an alchemical weapon with him? How surprising.", Song Fan commented sardonically.

Xiyu Zhai kept silent.

"Alright, tell me about it. It was a poison, yes?"

"No! No, it wasn't poison. We would have been prepared for that; I have several heaven grade antidotes with me!"

Song Fan scoffed.

"Do you realize who the only supplier of heaven grade antidotes across the peninsula is? Unless your antidotes come from ancient stock of your family, I wouldn't be too confident in their effectiveness against Ma Rong. But I digress. If it wasn't poison, what was it then?"

"It was some kind of fog that blocked out soul senses. Well, it didn't outright block them but completely confused them. We couldn't use them at all, it was nauseating. We couldn't see anything, we couldn't feel anything and the noises… everywhere at once, but not from his attacks. It made fighting him absolutely impossible. I've not felt so helpless ever since I reached the Dao Attunement Realm."

"That is a powerful weapon indeed, if it works even half as well as you are describing it. But I struggle to grasp why it explains getting your entire team wiped out. Couldn't you… you know, just retreat from that fog?"

"I… we… yes, we could have."

"But you didn't."

"No. Well, I did, but it was too late for the others by then."

"I figured."

Visibly ashamed, Xiyu Zhai kept silent. Song Fan took his time to contemplate the new information before speaking up again.

"Well, frankly speaking, I had expected more from someone with your… ambitions. But I suppose I was mistaken."

Xiyu Zhai looked like she wanted to melt away under his gaze. He knew this expression well, this mix of fear, guilt and shame of, had known it since his early childhood. His siblings had looked that way at his father all too often, who had himself looked at his superiors that way more than once.

Song Fan had always found it utterly pathetic. It was the ugliest form of fear that he knew, and he had always made sure never to look like that himself. He had experienced his fair share of failure in his times, more than most even, but he had never shown such an embarrassing figure.

"Well, I suppose you came back with the information at least. That does count for something… Very well, I'll let you of easy this time. I'll even give you a choice."

The pathetic woman looked up at him, daring to show hope in her expression. Good for her.

"Your failure is going to cost you a finger. Literally. Either we take one of yours…"

A cold smile played along Song Fan's face.

"Or one of your son's."

Her face sunk like a stone chucked into the ocean. Song Fan knew very well what he had just dropped on her: It was widely known how much she adored her one and only son and that she was planning on making him the heir to her sect. From what he had heard, he was currently preparing for his breakthrough to the Soul Realization Realm at the young age of twenty-five, a testament to his talent and his mother's commitment.

Yet therein lay the crux of the choice Song Fan had presented to Lady Zhai: he hadn't made it there just yet.

For a cultivator, the permanent loss of a body part presented several serious challenges. They would usually have to live with it for much longer than a mortal would, they would be hindered in the combat techniques they could use, and they would commonly face social stigma among their peers, especially for wounds that were visibly inflicted as a punishment, not as a result of combat.

The most problematic consequence by far however was only faced by those who had already unified their soul and body prior to the loss. Since their soul was tied to their body, losing part of it would cause a permanent misalignment of the two, a 'scar' on the soul. This would hinder both their ability to cultivate and to apply their strength in a myriad of ways. The loss of a finger wasn't too debilitating, but it was still permanent obstacle to their future as a cultivator.

In contrast, those still within the Soul Realization Realm could still adjust to the change, merely losing some cultivation progress and those below it, like Xiyu Zhai's son, wouldn't face any issues relating to their cultivation at all.

Because of that, her giving up her own finger here would probably impact her son's future prospects far more than giving up his. She knew that just as well as Song Fan and that was part of his calculation.

Had he simply taken her finger as a punishment, he would have weakened one of his strongest subordinates – failure or not, that was not a good idea when he had just learned that the Lunar Peaks Sect had joined the opposing side of the war. Had he taken her son's finger, he would have spared her the mental grief of pushing that choice onto her, so it wouldn't have been much of a punishment.

"I'll… You'll… Please take my son's finger.", Xiyu Zhai said with a quiet, shaking voice.

Song Fan was objectively a cruel person, he wouldn't deny that. He was relentless and unforgiving, had no qualms mentally and physically tormenting people and enjoyed little more than punishing someone for their misdeeds. This wasn't something that particularly bothered him; he merely didn't subscribe to traditional notions of what made someone a 'good' or 'bad' person.

To him, the results spoke for themselves: as a cultivator he was accomplished like few others and as a politician, he was second in command of the most powerful sect in the alliance that was currently in the process of achieving total regional domination under his stewardship. If that was supposed to be bad, what would ever qualify as good?

He didn't see himself as unfair either: Xiyu Zhai had failed, so she was being punished; the mental anguish of having to make this choice herself was merely another part of her sentence. It wasn't like he was going around butchering innocent bystanders. He was disciplining his subordinates and taking down enemy combatants. The best way not to be among his targets was simply not standing in his way through either resistance or incompetence. He even helped communicate this by carefully crafting a fitting reputation.

"Always nice to have someone who can take the fall for you, isn't it? Very well, your son shall be punished for your failure in your stead. I'll even let you see to executing the punishment yourself."

"I… what?"

"It's only fair to your son. You are the one who made the choice, you are the one who should see it through. I'm sure I don't have to warn you what happens if you don't do it properly, yes?"

"… Yes… Yes of course, Elder Fan."

Judging from her dead expression, the woman's spirit seemed to be properly broken now.

"Good. You are dismissed."

She silently turned to leave. When she was at the entrance, Song Fan called out once more.

"Lady Zhai."

"Yes, Elder Fan?"

"Do not disappoint me again."

"…Yes, Elder Fan."

Then she was gone.

As soon as he was sure that no one could see or listen in on him anymore, Song Fan's fist crashed down on the throne's armrest, shattering it into wooden splinters that flew about the room. His soul, no longer under his tight control, roared loudly to mirror his anger. Streams of lightning sprang from his body, scouring the room and leaving scorch marks on the walls, floor and ceiling.

Xiyu Zhai had no idea how little of his wrath she had actually caught. From how Song Fan was feeling, he could have torn out her heart from her chest and fed it to her while it was still beating.

"Expected the Lunar Peaks Sect to take a few more weeks?" If only. He had firmly banked on them not joining the war at all. His informants had told them that they were utterly divided and not in a position to muster a force at all. He had even paid a proper fortune of a bribe to his contact, just to make sure everything would go smoothly! They had promised him to sway the elder's council against joining the war in return! He'd been had! He'd make them bleed for this. He'd make them scream. He'd…

Song Fan continued raging for several minutes before finally calming down. He would have his revenge, that was for sure, but that would have to wait for now. There was still a war going on and winning it had just become several measures more difficult. First, he had to figure out what the Lunar Peaks Sect was planning.

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