Chapter 10 | The Dragon First Roar
The window shattered before Xu Tianlong could reach for his robe.
A flaming arrow embedded itself in the wooden beam above the bed, and Lin was on her feet before the embers hit the floor. Her naked body caught the orange glow from outside, pale skin painted in firelight, the white streak in her hair gleaming like a battle standard.
"They didn’t even give us an hour," she said. There was no fear in her voice now. No tremor. The woman who’d trembled beneath him moments ago had been replaced by something harder.
’That’s my wife.’
"Get dressed." Xu Tianlong grabbed his robe, ignoring the scream of pain from his shoulder. The bandage was already soaking through with fresh blood. "How many?"
Lin was already at the window, her robe barely tied. "Twenty. No, thirty. They brought reinforcements."
"Feng Liang?"
"I don’t see him. But someone’s commanding them. They’re not just burning buildings, they’re forming up near the main gate. Organized."
’Someone else. Someone higher up.’
Xu Tianlong strapped his boots on. His ribs screamed. His shoulder pulsed with every heartbeat. His body was a wreck, three days of healing undone by one night of passion. But the Frosted Moon Essence was still humming in his meridians, cold and silver, waiting to be used.
"Stay behind me."
Lin turned from the window, her dark amber eyes blazing. "Absolutely not."
"Lin—"
"I just watched you nearly die once this week. I’m not doing it again." She crossed to him in three strides and grabbed his uninjured arm. "I’m your wife now. Your partner. Not your burden. If you’re going out there, I’m going with you."
He met her gaze. The ice beauty was gone. In her place stood a woman made of frozen fire, and she wasn’t asking permission.
"Then stay close. And if I tell you to run—"
"I’ll ignore you."
’Perfect.’
They burst through the compound doors together.
The courtyard was chaos. Servants ran in every direction, some carrying buckets, others just running. The barracks had caught fire. The eastern storehouse was already gone, a pillar of flame reaching into the night sky. And through the smoke, crimson-and-black armor moved in formation.
"Xu Tianlong!"
The voice cut through the din like a blade. A man stood at the center of the courtyard, tall, broad-shouldered, his armor marked with the insignia of a Feng clan commander. Not Feng Liang. Someone older. Someone who’d actually earned his rank.
"You’ve been a thorn in our side for a week," the commander said. "Killed our expert. Humiliated our envoy. And now—" He gestured at the flames. "Now you’ve forced my hand. I am Feng Zhao’s elder brother. Feng Yuan. And I’ve been authorized to end this."
Xu Tianlong stepped forward, placing himself between the soldiers and Lin. "You tried poisoning me. You tried ambushing me. You tried burning my home." He raised his hand, and cold light began gathering in his palm, silver and blue, the essence of winter made weapon. "Maybe it’s time you tried running."
Feng Yuan laughed. "You’re one man. Wounded. Exhausted. And that little trick with the mist won’t work twice."
"I know." The light in his palm intensified. "I’ve got something new."
He thrust his hand forward.
The Frost Moon Slash erupted from his palm like a blade made of frozen moonlight. It wasn’t fire. Wasn’t qi in the traditional sense. It was winter itself, a crescent arc of silver-white energy that screamed through the air with the sound of a blizzard compressed into a single breath.
Five soldiers were in its path.
They didn’t even have time to scream.
The slash struck the first man square in the chest and didn’t stop. It passed through him like a ghost, leaving behind a statue of ice, his face frozen in surprise, his sword raised but never swung. The second, third, fourth, fifth. All of them. Frozen mid-stride, mid-swing, mid-scream.
Silence fell across the courtyard.
Then the ice statues cracked. Crumbled. Collapsed into piles of frost and shattered armor.
’Holy shit.’
[Ding!]
[Frost Moon Slash Activated]
[20 Frost Essence Consumed]
[Amplification x2 Applied]
[Cultivation Surge Detected]
[Body Tempering Layer 7 Achieved]
The breakthrough hit him like a wave of cold fire. His meridians expanded. His bones densified. The wound in his shoulder didn’t heal completely, nothing short of a miracle would manage that, but the bleeding slowed. The pain receded. His body, which had been running on fumes moments ago, suddenly had reserves again.
Feng Yuan’s face went pale. "What...what kind of monster are you?"
"The kind you shouldn’t have provoked."
Lin moved.
She didn’t have Frost Moon Slash. She didn’t have a System. What she had was Qi Condensation Layer 2, three years of repressed fury, and a husband she’d just decided she wasn’t going to lose.
She hit the nearest soldier like a winter storm. Her palm strike caught him in the throat. Her elbow shattered the next man’s nose. A third raised his sword, and she was already inside his guard, her knee driving into his gut, her fist cracking against his jaw.
"Anyone else?" she said, breathing hard. "Anyone else want to try burning my home?"
The remaining soldiers hesitated. They’d signed up to massacre a crippled clan, not to fight a woman who moved like vengeance given form.
"Kill them both!" Feng Yuan screamed. "Kill them now!"
But his men weren’t listening. They were backing away, from Lin, from the pile of frozen corpses, from the young master who’d just wiped out five soldiers with one attack.
Feng Yuan drew his sword. "Fine. I’ll do it myself."
He was Qi Condensation Layer 4, stronger than the expert Xu had killed with the mist, stronger than any single fighter in the Xu compound. He crossed the courtyard in three blurred steps, his blade leaving afterimages in the firelight.
Xu Tianlong met him head-on.
Iron Bone Fist met Feng steel. The impact sent a shockwave through the courtyard. Xu’s knuckles screamed. Feng’s sword rang like a bell. They exchanged three blows, four, five, each one faster than the last, each one pushing Xu’s injured body closer to its limit.
Then Lin was there.
She came from Feng Yuan’s blind side, a blade of ice forming in her palm, not Frost Moon Slash, but something cruder, a shard of frozen qi she’d shaped through sheer instinct. She drove it into the gap between Feng Yuan’s shoulder plates.
He screamed. Staggered. His sword arm dropped.
Xu didn’t hesitate. He stepped inside the commander’s guard and drove his Iron Bone Fist into the man’s face.
Feng Yuan hit the ground and didn’t get up.
The courtyard fell silent.
The remaining Feng soldiers, maybe a dozen, stared at their fallen commander. At the pile of frozen corpses. At the bloodied young master and his ice-cold wife standing side by side in the firelight.
"Anyone else?" Xu Tianlong said quietly.
They ran.
Through the compound gates, into the burning streets of Thousand Pines, the Feng soldiers fled. Their footsteps faded into the crackle of flames and the distant wail of civilians.
But it wasn’t over.
A horn sounded in the distance. Then another. Then a third, each one deeper than the last, each one coming from a different direction. North, east, west. The Feng clan wasn’t retreating. They were regrouping.
And from somewhere beyond the city walls, a voice amplified by qi echoed across Thousand Pines.
"People of Thousand Pines! Your young master has spilled Feng blood. He has killed our soldiers. He has declared war on the Feng clan with his actions. And war—" The voice paused, letting the word settle over the burning city like ash. "—war is exactly what he’ll get."
Silence.
Then the voice spoke again, closer now.
"By dawn, the Xu compound will be ash. By noon, the Xu name will be forgotten. And by sunset—" The voice dropped to something almost gentle. "—Xu Tianlong will be dead."
The horn sounded one final time.
Xu Tianlong stood in the ruins of his courtyard, his wife at his side, his body held together by adrenaline and amplified qi. The city burned around them. The Feng clan was mobilizing for total war. And he had perhaps six hours until dawn.
He looked at Lin. Her robe was torn. Her knuckles were bloody. Her hair had come loose from its jade clip. She’d never looked more beautiful.
"They want a war," he said.
"They do."
"Then we’ll give them one."